Posted by England are going to have to watch this. It’s not deliberate, but if you had to design some tactics to erode a player’s confidence, what they’re doing to Adil Rashid might be what you’d come up with.
In the summer, Rashid started the one-day series against Australia well and promptly got dropped. He got one over in the second Twenty20 match against South Africa, got carted and from then Alastair Cook opted for Joe Denly ahead of him. Yesterday, he got three overs, got a little bit of welly and was then demoted below Jonathan Trott in the bowling hierarchy.
This is what the English do with leg spinners. If you’re a seam bowler and you go for a few runs, you quite often get a chance to make amends with a few more overs – because at least you’re shit in a predictable way. If you’re a leg spinner, there are no second chances.
Even Shane Warne said that his only aim in his first over was just to stay on. Leg spin bowling isn’t something that you can switch on and switch off. It’s not a light switch or your brain when you’re at work.
He is far overrated. Just because of the rarity of a leg spinners presence in English cricket. He has been woeful thus far in international cricket.
Nevertheless, England won yesterday.
He isn’t useless, but it is too early to be bringing him on. However, if they feel they don’t have anyone else, I suppose they’ll just have to stick with him.
I don’t know that his confidence is that easily eroded. He doesn’t seem a fool. And if he is serious about leg-spinning, he’ll have to learn to wear it some days all his career.
By the way, all the fuss that was made about his good game against Oz was very misleading. If you look at the stats, most of his bowling was at Michael Clarke.
Michael Clarke has a strike rate of 67 this year in ODI’s. In other words, it doesn’ t matter who bowls at him, he still can’t get it off the freakin’ square.
He’s a batsman who bowls a bit according to a load of Yorkshire journalists. Yet he’s touted as The Saviour.
That said, in English cricket at all levels, you cannot be an ‘okay’ legspinner. There are plenty of ‘okay’ offspinners and medium pacers playing at clubs, counties and for the country.
But as a wristspinner if you are not an immediate world-beating, game-changing hero, you’ll get taken off after three overs.
It doesn’t really make sense.
D Charlton, it’s the Warne complex. You think it’s bad here, you should see it in Aus. Hence the one test, suck it and see approach to practically any slow bowler who can turn their arm over.