Adil Rashid

Adil Rashid Biography

Adil Rashid happens to be one of better leg-spinners in World cricket right now, but his career has been severely impaired by England’s reluctance to use him as a premium spinner in the longer format of the game.

Background

Rashid belongs to the Mirpuri community and his family migrated to England in 1967 from Kashmir. Rashid showed promise from a young age. Terry Jenner spotted him as a 14-year-old. In 2006, he played several games for Yorkshire Second XI, making four successive centuries.

Debut

Rashid first got a taste of international cricket when he played for England in World T20 2009 where he put on some decent performances playing in four out of England’s five matches in the tournament.

He played his first ODI against Ireland in Belfast taking 1/11 with his team eking out a narrow win. The crafty bowler did play in subsequent ODIs against Australia but was inconsistent to say the least.

Rise to Glory

Ironically, the leg-spinner had to wait till for six years to make it to the team in the longer format of game.

He had a rather bumpy start to his test career as he was thrashed all around the park in the first innings of his debut against Pakistan. However, he bounced back in style in the second innings picking up a five-wicket haul, even though his team lost.

At the same time, Rashid found some consistency with both bat and ball in a completely overhauled English limited-overs side which played fearless cricket, eventually becoming an integral part of Eoin Morgan’s team.

Low Point

In an England side, historically notorious of neglecting spin bowling, Rashid found it hard to book a permanent place in team.

The bowling all-rounder got a golden opportunity to make a statement when England had a series of test matches lined up against Bangladesh and India.

Rashid did bowl well and even managed to pick several wickets, but his inability to keep a tab on run scoring came back to haunt him again, eventually resulting in him going down the pecking order.

Club Career

Rashid’s all-round abilities along with his relative comfort level with white ball cricket has made him an asset to any T20 franchise. The leg spinner has played in the Big Bash League for Adelaide strikers putting in reasonable performances.

England’s preference for Mason Crane as a lone spinner in recent Ashes is a clear indication from the selectors though, that they are looking at Rashid as limited overs specialist, effectively ending his test ambitions.

Rashid also recently signed only a white-ball contract with Yorkshire, a clear indication that he has accepted his future lies in the limited-overs formats and that he would prefer to devote his full attention to it.