Quote from a BBC report on the Ashes squad:

"England may include Adil Rashid alongside fellow spinners Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar for the extended get-together at the National Performance Centre at Loughborough.

The Yorkshire leg-spinner will be hoping a series of impressive performances in the Twenty20 World Cup will persuade the selectors to afford him an extended stay in the England set-up.

The expectation that the Sophia Gardens pitch in Cardiff where the first Test takes place will take spin will increase his chances of staying on."

Yes!

we all seem to think groundsmen will prepare spinners wickets this summer as the Aussies are weak in this department. However, this assumes they are also weak at playing spinners and this is not a straightforward assumption.

It also assumes Rashid is ahead of Panesar in the selectors eyes (assuming Swann is ahead of both).

Yes he may be in the squads but he may not make the final starting eleven. In this case as he is not ECB centrally contracted he would be transported to Yorkshires match and able to play and substitute for one of the starting line up presumably.

We will need him based on current form.

the lad may get fed up of being in the back of a car so hope he has some decent tunes on his Ipod

I fancy that Rashid has overtaken Panesar in the pecking order as the latter has done nowt lately to justify his place

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/England-offer-Vaughan-a-chance.5372260.jp

There was a time, not too long ago, when you were considered for England based on your form. I note:

Vaughan: 6 innings, 109 runs @ 17.33
Bresnan: 7 inning, 146 runs @ 24.33 and 6 wickets @ 68.83
Rashid: 4 innings, 35 runs @ 37.5 and 6 wickets @ 38.83

On form, Bresnan and Vaughan should be playing in the Yorkshire Seconds. Am I missing something here?

but don't see how Rashid can have a batting average of 37.5 if he's only scored 35 in total.

75 runs 4 innings 2 not outs = 37.50

Even old gits are right sometimes!

...but you stated 35 runs in total not 75.

I am sure that Rashid is destined to be a great test player, both as a spin bowler and batsman, when he settles and gets some long innings opportunities. If in future Yorkshire have him available early and late season, it will be good, but I think we need to keep our other two spinners and play them both (when fit), even if we have to restrict specialist seam bowlers to three. The problem of playing four seems to be that our current captain's sterotype is to share out the first 20/30 overs between the seamers and then try spin option. At least he seems to have stopped bowling himself as an interim stock bowler!

You are missing everything, Old Git. Averages are not form. Cricket is played on grass, not paper, and involves an enormous number of random variables.

Have it your way Dewsburian, but statistics are an invaluable tool in determining form in cricket. Subjective analysis, which seems to be the England management's style, rarely works well on its own. Vaughan hasn't hit a century for Yorkshire since 2003, and has failed time-and-time again over the past three years. He may look great but he has been a hole in the batting order for too long.

In yesterdays Yorkshire Post Flower was tlaking about 'not sure if we will pick 3 spinners for the Ashes' when discussing rashid.

He was giving glowing testimony to how he has performed in the T20 but the 3 spinners line suggests to me that Swann and Panesar may still be ahead of him in the queue.

Based on current thinking perhaps Yorkshire should be picking 3 spinners (Adil, Wainwright and Rafiq) as all of them seem decent batters as well.

Leg spin, off spin and left arm variety