It’s tough enough for a young cricketer to learn the art of leg spin, without his club and country appearing to have differing views as to how his career should be developed. But this seems to be the problem currently facing Adil Rashid; as when with Yorkshire, he’s played in every first-class match, giving him chance to groove his bowling with long spells, whilst a far more selective approach is taken as to when he’s exposed to shorter forms of the game. England, however, take a different approach. One where specialist coaching and net sessions are given a higher priority than match practice, with chances in 20/20 and ODI cricket seen as the ideal introduction to international cricket.

The result was a confusing stop/start season for Adil in 2009. Before it begin, he missed out on any kind of meaningful pre-season match practice, as after a winter acting as an England net-bowler he was kept on to perform the same duties for the ODI games in the West Indies. Exactly what this was supposed to achieve, especially as the England spin coach, Mushtaq Ahmed, had already left at the end of the test series, is open to debate.

Perhaps predictably, as Adil went into the season with little to no preparation, he made a slow start with both bat and ball. A situation that wasn’t helped with call up’s for England Lions and the World Cup 20/20 squad before he’d had chance to find any real rhythm with his bowling. The 20/20 call up in particular made little sense, given that, as yet, Adil rarely plays that form of the game at domestic level. It also meant that the thirteen overs of experience he gained in England’s fitful 20/20 campaign came at the expense of playing in three CC matches – matches where he could have re-gained his bowling rhythm, making him a viable back-up for the Ashes later in the year.

Instead it wasn’t until August before Adil’s mojo fully returned. Although when form did re-appear, it did so with spectacular effect. As in both the away victory at Basingstoke and the home game against Lancashire, he scored an unbeaten century and took a five wicket haul – the first time a Yorkshire player had done that in consecutive games since, oh, God knows when.

Unfortunately those where to be Adil’s last games for us, as the final month, and four CC games, of the season where missed whilst he bowled a total of 27 overs for England during their disasterous ODI series against Australia.

Adil remains a cricketer of immense promise, but the time’s come for England to stop messing him about. Either pick AND play him, or allow him to improve his game by playing for his county. The current situation is only stalling his development

Championship – 9 matches, 387 runs @ 77.40, 26 wickets @ 31.46

Friends Provident – 7 matches, 63 runs @ 12.60, 6 wickets @ 34.50

Twenty/20 Cup – 3 matches, 42 runs @ 42.00, 2 wickets @ 40.50

Pro40 – 3 matches, 14 runs @ 14.00, 3 wickets @ 32.66

(Rashid photo: by kind permission, Dave Morton)