The last time England’s men played a one-day international at Chester‑le-Street was during that crazy heatwave two summers ago, when the mercury went north of 40C and players were left seeing pink elephants. Similar conditions appear unlikely on Tuesday, although the hosts are feeling the heat a little bit.
Sitting 2-0 down against Australia with three to play, Harry Brook’s men have no more wriggle room left in this very autumnal five-match series. So far it has been a bit of a mismatch, albeit one that was probably to be expected given some of the statistics. In the 68-run defeat at Headingley on Saturday, for example, the tourists fielded nine players with more than 100 international caps each and England just the one in Adil Rashid.
Leg-spinner supreme but tailender with the bat, Rashid is also the current England team’s highest scorer in the ODI format with 853 runs, 205 more than the next best, Phil Salt. Jos Buttler may be injured and Joe Root seemingly rested before a possible 50-over return in the Champions Trophy early next year, but it still illustrates how hard Rob Key’s selection panel has pressed the reset button.
“We know we’re coming up against a very strong Australia side who are in great form and we know we have to win,” Rashid said after rain forced England to train indoors at Durham’s Riverside Ground on Monday. “We’ve got to turn up with our A game in all departments. If we put that together, hopefully we can get a win.”
That Rashid survived the cull that resulted from two failed World Cup defences in the past year says a fair bit about his enduring class, with the 36-year-old claiming his 200th ODI wicket over the weekend when Glenn Maxwell failed to pick a slider and holed out in the deep. Among spinners, only Saqlain Mushtaq (101 innings) and Shane Warne (124) reached the milestone quicker than Rashid (131).
As well as the lack of a ready replacement – Rehan Ahmed, 20, has been blooded by England in recent times but is still a work in progress – Rashid’s continuation also says something about his desire to forge ahead, not least after his quasi-older brother these past 10 years, Moeen Ali, was among those to be moved on.
“[Two hundred ODI wickets] is a nice achievement but I don’t look at it in too much depth,” Rashid said. “I still believe that hopefully for myself there’s a long way to go, as opposed to just being happy with what I’ve got. I feel good. I’m not looking at retirement. I’m playing each game and series as it comes and, if I’m still enjoying it and performing, I’ll keep carrying on.
“I’ve got no eye yet on retiring or anything like that – that’s not even crossed my mind. It’s about enjoying the game and still giving it everything I’ve got.”
On Moeen, Rashid said: “He’s a big miss for the team and a big miss for me because we’re really good friends on and off the pitch. He’s made that decision and got another chapter of his life with the remainder of his career and I’m sure he’ll do wonders.
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“Sometimes it can be a bit … not lonely, but me and him are very tight, very close. I still speak to him on a regular basis but it is different. That’s life, people move on and come in and out. That’s something each individual has to get used to and the team as well.”
More pressing is England’s need to rediscover their 50-over tempo with the bat, something lost after the World Cup win in 2019 and not exactly helped by the format’s second-tier status domestically. Buttler was back in the nets on Monday and should return from injury in the Caribbean this November.
In the meantime, a couple of players could do with making up some ground on the unlikelier of Rashid’s records.
