‘Adil Rashid could be persuaded back to Test cricket’

LONDON: England’s head coach Trevor Bayliss believes that leg spinner Adil Rashid could be persuaded to make a return to Test cricket on the strength of his white-ball form.

Rashid claimed 20 wickets at 23.95 in England’s nine-match ODI campaign this summer, including a superb delivery to bowl Virat Kohli in the series decider at Headingley, a ball that turned so sharply the India captain was left open-mouthed in astonishment.

Rashid retired from red-ball cricket earlier this year, saying that “his heart was not in it” after picking up ten wickets at 50 in seven Championship appearances last summer.He had not played a Test match for England since 2016-17, when he finished as England’s leading wicket-taker in India and Bangladesh with 30 scalps in seven Tests, and was overlooked for the home series against South Africa and West Indies, as well as the subsequent Ashes tour.

However, England’s selection panel has been overhauled since the winter, and as Bayliss pointed out, the new National Selector Ed Smith set a precedent for Test selection on white-ball form with his very first squad.

Against Pakistan in May, Jos Buttler returned to England’s Test team and made an immediate impact with two half-centuries, including a match-defining 80 not out in the second Test at Headingley.

Asked if England would urge Rashid to consider and follow Buttler’s example in Test cricket, Bayliss replied: “Possibly,” but added that the ball remained in the player’s court. “That’s a decision he’s got to make,” he said.

“This year is probably the best we’ve seen him bowl,” Bayliss said of Rashid.“He’s bowled well in one-day cricket over the last few years but his control and his consistency this year has been top class.”