Veteran England leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who starred in the third ODI against South Africa on Sunday (February 9), has announced that he will be unavailable for the selection of England’s upcoming tour to Sri Lanka. However, he shared the reason behind this as well.
The 31-year old leggie said that it would be unfair to get selected simply by making himself available for the selection and not putting any effort in the hard yards in domestic cricket.
“At this moment in time, I’m concentrating on playing for England in T20 cricket coming up in a couple of days. I don’t think I would (put my name for selection) at this moment in time,” Adil Rashid told Sky Sports.
“For me to get into Test cricket, I’ve got to earn that right and deserve my place. For me to get Test cricket, I’ve got to go back into county cricket, perform, do well, and then get selected. It’s a bit unfair for me to just say, yeah, I’m available. At this moment in time, I’m really concentrating on white-ball cricket. Maybe in the future (I’ll come back to Test cricket),” he further added.
As there is neither Adil Rashid nor Moeen Ali available for Test selection, England will go with Dom Bess and Jack Leach – both of them were a part of the squad as their spin bowling options in the recently-concluded Test series against South Africa.
However, England will play two Tests in Galle and Colombo, respectively. The first Test will begin on March 19. As far as England’s recent series is concerned, they have won the third ODI against South Africa. While the first one was won by South Africa, the second game was washed out.
Apart from Adil Rashid’s 3 for 51 in his 10-overs spell, Moeen Ali and Saqib Mahmood took one wicket each. Later, while chasing, Jonny Bairstow did a great job with his quickfire 23-ball 43 knock with the help of 6 fours and 3 sixes. Joe Root also scored 49 off 52.
It was Joe Denly who scored 66 off 79 with 6 fours and 3 sixes and Tom Banton’s run-a-ball 32 helped England reached the target within 44 overs. However, Lungi Ngidi and Beuran Hendricks bagged 3 wickets each for South Africa.
