Adil Rashid ‘will be better for the break’

Some further thoughts on the Ashes and Performance squads announced last week:

Although most news reports led on the inclusion of Chris Tremlett and Monty Panesar, a number also flagged up the omissions of Ravi Bopara and Adil Rashid.

The exclusion of Bopara is actually perfectly understandable – he hasn’t played Test cricket since the fourth Test against Australia last year, and awarding him an incremental contract suggests he will be drafted in for the seven one-dayers and two Twenty20s that follow the Tests.

Both of the Sussex allrounders Michael Yardy and Luke Wright are in a similar position to Bopara.

Rashid’s omission from both squads on the other hand is more difficult to explain. National selector Geoff Miller reckons ‘he will be better for the break.’

 

One can only presume that Rashid will be a part of the Lions squad that is due to tour the West Indies early next year. If he’s left out of that one as well, we’ll know that something is seriously wrong.

Bopara in four wicket haul shock

England take series with huge win...and Ravi Bopara takes 4 for 39. Even he doesn't think he's an allrounder though, as this photo proves.

Allrounder update

I was interested to see Ravi Bopara, who has just been called up to the England one-day squad as a replacement for Ian Bell, described as an allrounder today.

The Essex man may have justified that description for his primary school team, but a career record for England in one-dayers of six wickets in fifty matches tells a different story.

If Ravi Bopara is an genuine allrounder, what does that make Paul Collingwood? The new Garry Sobers?