Cook backs Rashid selection

ECB’s decision to pick Adil Rashid for the first Test against India drew a lot of criticism from former English players but ex-captain Alastair Cook sprang to the defence of the leg-spinner.

Rashid had signed only a white-ball contract with Yorkshire at the start of the county season, having all but given up Test cricket to focus more on the shorter formats. However, thanks to his impressive performances in the just-concluded limited overs series against India and the prevalent heat wave, ECB surprisingly picked Rashid, a move that was not well received here.

Cook, addressing the media on Monday, felt it’s an unusual situation but it’s unfair to be harsh on Rashid. “It is interesting because it's so unusual, the history of Adil saying he's not playing red-ball cricket. But in the last couple of months, there's been some exceptional circumstances with a couple of the guys next in line — Jack (Leach) and Dom (Dominic Bess).

“The way Adil has been playing and bowling in the one-dayers, it seemed quite an obvious selection. He has been bowling brilliantly — I know in a different format. In one sense, I feel a little bit sorry for Adil – all the political side of the selection (has hogged the limelight). He’s gone away and worked really hard on his one-day skills and has been bowling brilliantly in the last two series.

“He's been selected to play for England, which is a huge honour, and all this other stuff has overtaken it. It's just because it's unusual — it's never really happened this way before. I don't think it will happen very many times again.”

India have some concerns in their batting department with opener Shikhar Dhawan and one-down Cheteshwar Pujara in woeful form. Cook, however, felt the duo have the class to turn things around. “With very good players, form is certainly temporary. The reason they're very good players is the number of runs they've scored in the past over a sustained period of time. That’s why they're the number one side in the world.

“You can go a couple of innings not scoring any runs, and suddenly you get a couple away and start to get that rhythm and timing back – and you get a big one. That is the nature of the beast, certainly with top-order batting.”