08 September,2009 08:11 AM IST | | Khalid A-H Ansari
With two down and five to go in the current ODI series against Australia, England will probably recall Adil Rashid into the squad for the third game at Southampton tomorrow.
They will also be hoping that pace bowler Stuart Broad, who played a stellar role in the home team's ecstatic Ashes win, will recover in time from his stiff neck to play in order to keep alive their fervent hopes of humbling the old enemy again.
Rashid almost steered England to an exciting win in a tight finish in the first ODI encounter at the Oval last week, in which Australia managed to scramble home by four runs.
Twenty-one year old Adil Usman Rashid, the Yorkshire-born spin-bowling all-rounder of Pakistani origin, bowled economically while conceding 37 runs from 10 overs and scored 31 not out off 23 balls, but was surprisingly left out from the home team which lost at Lord's on Sunday by 37 runs.
One can almost imagine the audible sense of relief expressed over Rashid's exclusion by Aussie skipper Michael Clarke, which must have been heard all the way in his Liverpool hometown in New South Wales Down Under.
Before Sunday's game, Clarke had admitted he had to master Rashid (nicknamed 'Dilly') to snap out of his ODI slump which has extended over more than a one-year period.
"I think Rashid's got a bright future. I couldn't seem to hit him for any runs ... I probably didn't play as well as I would have liked," Clarke admitted ruefully after his ponderous 45 which came off 72 balls.
Rashid has been identified by Shane Warne as successor to all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and former England captain Alec Stewart has predicted that the Yorkshireman will overtake Monty Panesar as the team's second spinner behind Graeme Swann.
Rashid toured India and the West Indies in 2008 without playing a Test and played in four out of England's five matches in the recent 2009 ICC World Twenty20 championship. He has been recently taking advice from Terry Jenner, who mentored Shane Warne during his illustrious career.
