Rashid has been named in England's Test squad to face India at Edgbaston, live on Sky Sports Cricket from Wednesday
Thursday 26 July 2018 12:05, UK
Adil Rashid is back in England's Test squad - and, boy, would captain Joe Root love him to produce a delivery like the one he bowled to Virat Kohli in the third ODI at Headingley!
Kohli was left utterly dumbfounded as local lad Rashid pitched the ball on leg stump, ragged it back past the batsman's outside-edge and struck off-stump - the delivery to remove the India skipper evoking memories of Shane Warne's Ball of the Century to Mike Gatting at Old Trafford in 1993.
Rashid's recall to England's Test team will divide opinion, not least because he made himself unavailable for red-ball cricket for Yorkshire earlier this year and has not played a first-class fixture since September.
The leg-spinner has been a menace to batsman in ODI cricket of late, with no one bettering his 110 wickets in 68 games since the 2015 World Cup, but his Test record - 38 scalps in 10 matches at 42.78 - is modest at best.
That said, he was the pick of the England bowlers during their admittedly dismal tour of India in 2016, picking up 23 wickets - 13 more than Moeen Ali's 10 - at an average of 37.43 in five matches.
Rashid has dismissed Kohli four times in Test cricket, twice in the subcontinent in 2016 - Kohli hitting his wicket in Rajkot to fall for 40 and then the victim of a stunning catch from Ben Stokes in the slips to depart for 81 in Visakhapatnam - and twice in U19 fixtures in England.
On India's tour of England in 2006, Rashid castled Kohli for 123 in Canterbury and then had him caught behind in Taunton for 59 during an eight-wicket haul in a three-match series the away side won 1-0.
Rashid and Kohli are now set to do battle again in Birmingham from Wednesday - does Rashid have another ripper up his sleeve?
Watch England's five-Test series against India live on Sky Sports Cricket, starting with the opener, at Edgbaston, from 10am on Wednesday.
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