England vs India: Adil Rashid lashes at Michael Vaughan for questioning his Test recall

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) recently announced a 13-member England squad for the first Test match against India at Edgbaston beginning on August 1. The most controversial and surprising name was of leg-spinner Adil Rashid who made a comeback into England Test side after some impressive performance in the recent limited-overs series.

Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan was clearly not impressed with Rashid’s selection in the Test squad, despite his big decision to stop playing red-ball cricket in February this year. Vaughan termed his inclusion as a ‘ridiculous’ decision taken by the selectors.

His comments are just not important

Rashid has played 10 Tests for England in which he has picked up 38 wickets at an average of 42.78 and his last outing in the whites came during the last series against India in December 2016. In reply to Vaughan’s comments on his Test selection, Rashid said that his views do not matter to a lot of people. The leggie revealed that he never retired from red ball cricket and when his county side, Yorkshire asked him on his availability, he couldn’t refuse.

“He can say a lot and he thinks people might listen, but I don’t think they do. I don’t see what the big deal is, with people talking about me being retired. I didn’t say anything about retirement, which some pundits have said. It was not an easy decision, but when your country wants you and asks if you are available, you cannot just say no,” said Rashid in a conversation with BBC Sport.

The leg-spinner talked about Vaughan’s problem of passing some unnecessary comments has bored everyone a lot. At the same time, he also mentioned that there might be people who feel his selection in the Test side is a disgrace, but this is not in his hands. He also noted that Vaughan had a problem when he took the big decision to skip red-ball cricket for a while to concentrate on his white-ball game.

“When I mentioned at the start of the year I will not be playing red-ball cricket, he tweeted something then. He was being controversial and saying his stupid things then too. I don’t think he has an agenda against me. I played under and with him but sometimes ex-players come out and start talking nonsense about current players,” Rashid added.

“If he wants to carry on talking just because he is bored with nothing better to say, then that is his choice. There will be people out there who are not happy. There will be haters, like the pundits who are saying it is a disgrace. That is not my fault,” concluded the England leg-spinner who is expected to be in the XI for the first Test.

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