Leicestershire leg spinner Rehan Ahmed called up by England after three first-class games

The 18-year-old leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed has been called up to England's squad for the series against Pakistan after just three first-class games for Leicestershire.

As the Guardian points out, if he is selected for one of the three tests he will beat Brian Close's record to become the youngest ever England test player and also become the first Leicestershire player given an England test cap since James Taylor in 2011.

The paper also quotes the England coach Brendon McCullum:

"We know he’s not the finished article and has raw potential, but Ben, myself and the rest of the coaches like how he approaches his game. The experience of being part of the squad in Pakistan will be hugely beneficial for him, and he will add to the makeup of our squad."

McCullum's caution was being justified as he spoke. Ahmed recorded figures of none for 73 off eight overs today as England posted 501 for 7 against England Lions off only 79 overs. And older readers will remember Ian Salisbury being called up to the team unsuccessfully after joining the England party as a net bowler.

Still, it's easy to see what England like about Ahmed. He had a successful under-19 world cup, is quicker through the air than Matt Parkinson and scored a century in his third county championship game.

Sooner or later England will need a white-ball replacement for Adil Rashid, and it may be that role which Ahmed is really auditioning for this winter. You can see him in T20 action in the video above.

I wish him well, and like Adil Rashid and Mason Crane, he now has a label on this blog. I hope it will see many posts.

Cricket Badger: John Poysden's podcast on the art of slow bowling

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This blog loves spin bowling - leg spin in particular. Back in the late 1980s I sent to see Sussex play at Derby just because they had a young Ian Salisbury in their side.

And one of my more prophetic posts comes from 2006 when Adil Rashid made his debut for Yorkshire:

Won't it be nice if yesterday turns out to have been an historic day in English cricket?

Mind you, I also have a label for Mason Crane.

Another Yorkshire leg spinner, Josh Poysden, has started a podcast to explore the art of slow bowling. 

He has posted eight episodes so far, with guest including Dom Bess, Matt Parkinson and Stuart MacGill.

Listen to Spin Badger here.

Adil Rashid gives up on red-ball cricket

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This blog has followed Adil Rashid since he made his debut for Yorkshire  - overhyping young English spinners is part of what Liberal England is about.

So I was sorry to hear that he has decided to concentrate on white-ball cricket and give the County Championship and even tests a miss.

But Tim Wigmore has argued - persuasively - that he is not the first to do so and will not be the last:

If Rashid is exceptional, it is only because he was an international T20 player who had still been attempting to play Test cricket too. Of the 22 players in the last World Twenty20 final only six have played Tests since. And only three - Root, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali - have done so since 2016. 

The shift is being driven by money, of course: the huge financial rewards available in T20, especially for players from beyond the sport’s economic big three of Australia, England and India. 

With T20 leagues now ubiquitous, there is always a tournament, somewhere, to play in without players needing to be involved in the longer formats.

Hamidullah Qadri: the future of English spin?

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This blog takes an interest in the emergence of young English spin bowlers. Both Adil Rashid and Mason Crane featured here early in their careers.

Today's Guardian introduced us to another bright prospect:

Last month Hamidullah Qadri did much more than become the first person born in the 21st century to play county cricket when, at the age of 16, he was picked for Derbyshire against Glamorgan. 

Qadri did much more than inspire Derbyshire to their first four-day victory in two years when, as an off-spinner, he opened the bowling in the final innings of a match which ended as he took his fifth wicket amid excitement and joy. 

He did much more than explain why Iain O’Brien, who played 22 Tests for New Zealand, calls him The Magician.

Qadri has since been called up to the England under-19 one day squad.

Why is the thought of a new England spinner so enticing?

In part it is because really good ones are so rare. In my long cricket-watching careering England have had precisely two consistent match-winning spinners: Derek Underwood and Graeme Swann.

And in part it's because it is good to craft and guile triumphing over strength and power in the modern game.

But I think it is also because one of my favourite cricket memories is Phil Edmonds' debut against Australia at Headingley in 1975. He took 5-28 in Australia's first innings and they were skittled for 135. (England did not win: the game was abandoned after protesters vandalised the pitch overnight.)

Edmonds was about the first young player I saw being picked for England. In those days a batsman could be promising at 30 and the selectors specialised in recalling former players. Both Ted Dexter and M,J.K Smith, who might as well have batted with dinosaurs, reappeared in the test side.

So as long as there are young England spinners, I will not feel entirely old myself.

Adil Rashid: the best figures by an English leg spinner since 1959

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On 22 July 2006 I blogged about Adil Rashid's Yorkshire debut, in which he took 6-67 against Warwickshire, and asked:

Won't it be nice if yesterday turns out to have been an historic day in English cricket?

Today, by taking 5-69, Rashid became the first English leg spinner to take five wickets in an innings since Tommy Greenhough in 1959.

That was in the second Pakistan innings. In the first he took 0-163, the worst ever figures for an England bowler on test debut.

Read more about Adil Rashid and about the history of English leg spin.

Didn't you used to be Adil Rashid?

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One of the many encouraging things about England's one-day victory over New Zealand was the all-round performance of Adil Rashid.

But it has taken him an awful long time to become an overnight sensation at the age of 27.

Rashid first came to the attention of this blog in July 2006 when he played his first game for Yorkshire and took 6-67. "Won't it be nice if yesterday turns out to have been an historic day in English cricket?" I asked.

The following month he played for England Under-19, when he "followed his first-innings hundred with a devastating 8 for 157".

For several seasons all went well for Rashid, and he played for England in the 2009 World Cup. At the time I blogged:

I was afraid that Adil Rashid would be savaged when he came on, but in the event he bowled beautifully and gave every sign that he is ready to play a part in the Ashes series later this summer.

Perhaps that was a little fanciful and, as it turned out, 2009 saw Graeme Swann establish himself as one of England's greatest spinners.

After that it all went wrong for Rashid. His long struggle back to favour is laid out on Cricinfo by Matthew Roller.

Now Michael Vaughan (whose sympathetic captaincy helped the young Rashid) says he would pick him for this summer's Ashes series.

If nothing else he would be a contrast to the sort of finger spinners I have heard Swann complain about. Those who are good at keeping it tight in a one-day game or the first innings of a match, but are found out when they are asked to turn the ball and win the game in the second.

Is Scott Borthwick the new Adil Rashid?

A very short post on The Corridor.

Watching cricket at the Angel, Market Harborough

I went to the Angel Hotel in Market Harborough this evening to meet my mother from her meeting of the Royal Naval Association. She was a meteorologist in the WRNS in her younger days.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the late Ron Palmer of the Royal Marines, who left money for us all to enjoy a tot of rum in his memory.

While I was in the bar waiting for the meeting to finish, I sat in the bar watching England beat Pakistan in the Twenty20 world cup.

It was a much better performance and a canny selection. I was afraid that Adil Rashid would be savaged when he came on, but in the event he bowled beautifully and gave every sign that he is ready to play a part in the Ashes series later this summer.

As I asked when he made his county debut back in 2006: "Won't it be nice if yesterday turns out to have been an historic day in English cricket?"

England Lions beat West Indies by 10 wickets

When I was 13 I could have named the full team of every English county - and quite possibly their second elevens too. These days England Lions (a sort of reserve test team) pick players I have never heard of. Who is Chris Woakes?

Still, well done to him and the rest of team for beating the West Indies so comprehensively. Congratulations particularly, to Adil Rashid (an early hero of this blog) for important contributions with bat and ball.

Come to think of it, I had never heard of Darren Pattinson when he played for the full England team last year. But then neither had most of his teammates.

Adil Rashid continues to improve

Time for an update on this blog's great hope for English cricket: Adil Rashid, Yorkshire's 20-year-old leg spinner.

Rashid was awarded his county cap a couple of week ago. Then, in the match against Sussex at Hove, where Yorkshire were fighting against relegation from the first division, he scored a career best 111 before taking 7-136 in the Sussex second innings. The result was that he finished as the third highest wicket taker for the English season.

The sage of Taunton, Vic Marks, writes about the selection of the England party to tour India this winter:

The second spinner is likely to be Graeme Swann. Yorkshire's Adil Rashid continues to advance, but the word is that he will not be selected yet and that he will benefit from more grooming.

There is the consolation that the Aussies would love to have an Adil Rashid learning his trade in state cricket. They have just plucked out the 36-year-old wrist spinner Bryce McGain for their tour of India. McGain has played 19 first-class matches in his life.

Adil Rashid's 2007 season

It is some time since we caught up with the great hope of English cricket, the young Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid.

According to the Yorkshire Post:

Rashid took 40 Championship wickets this year at 39.45, and although not quite the force he was with the ball in 2006, his batting will have attracted the eye of the selectors, with his record this summer reading 790 Championship runs at 46.47.

The same article quoted his county captain Darren Gough:

Gough revealed Yorkshire might promote Rashid in the batting order next season, saying: "He's a quality batsman who could play in the Yorkshire team solely as a batsman, and we might play him at No 6 next summer with Gerard Brophy at No 7."

Since making his first-class debut against Warwickshire at Scarborough in July 2006, Rashid has taken 69 wickets in 23 first-class matches at 36.43 and scored 961 runs at 38.44.

He hit his maiden Championship hundred against Worcestershire last month and has just signed a new two-year contract extension, which will keep him at Yorkshire until at least the end of 2010.

Rashid's summer was capped when he was named the Cricket Writers' Club's Young Cricketer of the Year, one of the game's most prestigious awards.

Adil Rashid and the history of English leg-spin

This blog has long entertained great hopes for Adil Rashid, the Yorkshire leg-spinner. He did not set the outfield on fire at Chelmsford, playing for England Lions against India, but time is on his side.

But if time is on his side, history isn't. Because it is an awful long time since England had a test class leg-spinner.

Chris Schofield was tried in 2000, playing two tests against Zimbabwe. In the first he didn't get a bowl: in the second he didn't get a wicket. He subsequently dropped out of county cricket, though this year he has been playing for Surrey and has even been named in England's preliminary squad for the Twenty20 world cup. Maybe his story is not over.

In the 1990s people had great hopes for Ian Salisbury, but he failed to make it as a test bowler. In the 1960s there was Robin Hobbs: in the 1950s Tommy Greenhough. Neither made the grade, though in four tests the latter took 16 wickets @ 22.31, which isn't so shabby.

So we are back to 1940s. Everyone remembers that Eric Hollies bowled Bradman second ball in the Don's final test, and his figures - 44 wickets @ 30.27 - are reasonably impressive. But it looks as though we have to go back to Doug Wright for an England leg-spinner with an extended test career. D.V.P. played 34 tests and took 108 wickets, though they did cost him nearly 40 runs each.

There may be names I have forgotten, and there have also been batsmen who bowled leg-spin a little too. One such is Bob Barber, and it is worth remembering that Mike Atherton was once a promising wrist spinner too. As a youngster, he once took 50 wickets in a season and won a Roses match before his back gave out and he stopped bowling.

So, while Adil Rashid is an exciting prospect, he has a lot of history to defy if he is to make it as an England bowler.

From our Adil Rashid correspondent

This blog has long followed the career of Adil Rashid, the young Yorkshire leg-spinner.

Andrew Longmore profiled him in The Times last week. He quoted the Hampshire batsman Michael Brown:

“Traditionally this pitch hasn’t got a lot of bounce, but he gets more bounce than Warney. Yet his control was so good and he worked the pitch out pretty quickly, bowling a little slower. Usually with a leggie you can wait for the bad ball. Here it was a question of limiting your mode of dismissal and trying to rotate the strike. Warney is always on about that and how irritating it is for a bowler. I tried to work him into the covers or behind square on the leg side, but there were no balls to release the pressure. For a kid of 19... ”

Adil Rashid: The legend grows

Last season I got very excited about the young Yorkshire batsman and leg-spinner Adil Rashid. After a quiet tour with England A over the winter, he is back in the headlines:

Adil Rashid again shone with the ball for Yorkshire but Durham showed plenty of fight at Headingley. Dale Benkenstein held the visitors together, following his century against Worcestershire with a battling 83 as the top order stuttered against Darren Gough and Tim Bresnan. However, when Benkenstein and Callum Thorp fell in consecutive deliveries to Rashid the innings stood at an unimpressive 207 for 8. Ottis Gibson and Graham Onions swung lustily adding 57 before Gough broke through, while Rashid claimed his fifth wicket when he ended the innings by removing Gibson.

A little caution is needed, as a lot of county batsmen play leg-spin badly. Ian Salisbury has enjoyed a successful career with Sussex and Surrey, but generally looked well out of his depth in test cricket.

Even so, I expect Adil Rashid will be playing for England before too long.

Adil Rashid interviewed

A comment on our most recent posting on Rashid points to an interview with him on the cricket blog The Corridor of Uncertainty.

Adil Rashid picked for England A

This blog's hero, the Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid, has been included in the England A party to tour Bangladesh.

Note too the presence of Nick "Grandson of Denis" Compton and Stuart "Should have been picked for the Ashes" Broad.

English cricket: It gets worse

Last summer this blog got very excited about the Yorkshire leg-spinner and batsman Adil Rashid. We rejoiced at his magnificent county debut and all-round performance for the England under 19 team.

Now news reaches us that he has been resting since then with a stress fracture of his back. It doesn't sound too serious, but we hope the saviour of English cricket will be fully fit again soon.

We shall have to win back the Ashes in 2009.

More Yorkshire leg-spin

Earlier in the summer I was writing about Adil Rashid. But he is not Yorkshire's only young, England-qualified leg-spinner.

This morning's Guardian reports on Yorkshire vs Middlesex at Scarborough:

Weather permitting - and judging by the dire forecasts, it may not - Yorkshire should complete a desperately needed victory today, after their two young leg-spinners Mark Lawson and Adil Rashid took all of their opponents' second- innings wickets in less than 50 overs.

If Lawson's return of six for 88, a career best, was the outstanding effort of the day, it was only one of a number of fine performances.

Worth a mention too is the Middlesex opening pair of Hutton and Compton. That's Ben and Nick, the grandsons of Len and Denis respectively.

The Adil Rashid story continues

Last week I got excited about the new Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid.

It looks as though he really is something special. From Cricinfo today:

Adil Rashid followed his first-innings hundred with a devastating 8 for 157 to put England in the driving seat at the end of the third day of the second Under-19 Test against India at Taunton.

Adil Rashid

The Guardian yesterday had more on our potential new national hero:

His first two overs had been nervous, a mixture of long-hops and full tosses. His third and fourth were better, and the batsmen became watchful. Four balls into his fifth over, the last before lunch, a beautifully flighted delivery saw Jonathan Trott play too soon and drive a firm return catch which Rashid took two-handed low to his right. Thereafter he bowled perhaps three deliveries which could be called loose. 

Ian Westwood was trapped in front by a top-spinner that hurried on to him, Luke Parker was beaten by bounce and turn, Dougie Brown by a sharply breaking fizzer, Nick Knight caught behind and Tim Groenewald padded up to a googly.