Outside Edge: Adil Rashid must play if England are to hope to rival Yasir Shah
COMMENT: England bowler has raw talent to match Pakistan's star man but could be left out at Old Trafford this weekend
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Your support makes all the difference.After a first test in which England were manifestly outplayed by Pakistan there has been considerable debate about how best to deal with Yasir Shah. The leg-spinner’s 10 wickets at Lord’s were rewarded with man of the match honours – and rightly so. If England are to bounce back at Old Trafford, they must play him better.
But should England also try to beat Yasir at his own game by playing a leg-spinner of their own? Adil Rashid was retained in the match day squad of 12, although England’s innate loyalty to long-term incumbents may ensure that Moeen Ali keeps his place. A two-pronged spin attack is the romantics’ choice – but England haven’t been in love with that option since the days of John Emburey and Phil Edmonds.
Rashid made an impressive showing in the recent ODIs against Sri Lanka, though in red ball cricket for Yorkshire this summer he has taken a modest 20 wickets at an average of 35. His debut test series in the UAE last autumn was a mixed affair: he took a nearly match-winning five-for in the first game; but then picked up just three further wickets in the subsequent two Tests.
If a potential recall in Manchester is in part inspired by Yasir’s brilliance at Lord’s, then comparisons between the pair are inevitable. It is the lot of leg-spinners in a way it isn’t for off-break bowlers or left-armers. I blame Shane Warne. Indeed, Yasir himself was described by Ben Stokes as the best leggie since Warne, and the similarities between that pair are clear. The Pakistani’s approach to the crease is much quicker, yet at the point of delivery his side-on action is reminiscent of Warne’s and like his Australian predecessor there is real drive through the crease as the shoulder rotates. It explains why Yasir, like Warne before him, gets such drift in to the right-handers.
Rashid is a different kettle of fish, with an action much more redolent of the unluckiest leg-spinner ever to have played the game – Warne’s contemporary, Stuart McGill. As he releases the ball, Rashid is much more chest-on to the batsman than Yasir. Freeze-frame Rashid and McGill at the exact moment of delivery and the similarity is startling. The consequence is greater side-spin but less chance of gaining substantial drift. Rashid, like McGill, turns the ball a long way off the pitch, but he doesn’t quite seem to bamboozle batters in the flight, in a way that Yasir does and Warne did – although there is a nice flipper among his variations.
Yet where Rashid and Yasir most diverge is the degree to which they are able to create a sense of theatre. Rashid is a high-class spinner but he doesn’t paralyse batsmen. When Yasir is bounding in, packing men round the bat, oohing and aahing, the man on strike might just as well be in the lions’ den. At Lord’s, Yasir kidded batsmen into overthinking their approach, and ultimately to getting out – it was the same trick that Warne pulled time and again.
Fast bowlers in full flow are a thrilling sight. But there is no greater wonder in cricket than seeing a leg-spinner mastering the game’s most difficult art; turning batsmen to jelly not by intimidatory bouncers but by perfectly disguised googlies. For that reason, I hope desperately that Rashid plays at Old Trafford. Whether he can ever match up to Yasir’s brilliance is another matter.
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One of the reasons given for English fallibility against leg-spin is that they rarely face it in county cricket. If that is the case, it can only be because England’s internationals no longer play enough for their counties.
After all, just consider the latest round of first division matches. At Trent Bridge, Imran Tahrir (arguably the world’s second best leg-break bowler) took 7-112 against Somerset, though it wasn’t enough to prevent a Marcus Trescothick-inspired victory. Down in Southampton meanwhile, Mason Crane bowled a whopping 51 overs and took three wickets as Surrey filled their boots.
As for the clash between Lancashire and Durham, the sides fielded a leggie apiece. Matt Parkinson, in his debut season, picked up a couple of wickets for the Red Rose, but ended up on the losing side as Durham – aided by Scott Borthwick’s 3-98 (not to mention his 92 runs for the match) – squeaked home by two wickets.
Add Rashid to the mix, and with Will Beer back in Sussex’s Championship XI too, there is no shortage of leg-spinning going on in the shires. Three cheers for that.
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