Cricket tit-bits—Warne names Rashid as the next Freddie
Stuart Broad‘s performance could have been exemplary in the just concluded Ashes 2009 but spin legend Shane Warne named Adil Rashid–who is yet to make his Test debut, as the best bet to fill in England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff’s shoes in the five-day format. Quite a few names were doing the rounds as Flintoff’s probable successor after the 31-year-old all-rounder called it quits in the five-day format but Warne surely spun a googly on many and stumped quite a few. “I hope that Stuart Broad isn’t going to be labelled with the tag of ‘next Freddie’. He seems to have his feet on the ground and there is no doubt about his promise. But I think England may have another stronger candidate waiting to fill that all-rounder’s role,” Warne wrote in his column in The Times. “My alternative, though, is Adil Rashid.
“Yes, he’s a spin bowler rather than a seamer, but there is no reason why England can’t go with three pacemen and two spinners. That’s a balanced attack, to me. Rashid has scored hundreds and taken wickets in his past matches for Yorkshire. He’s a real all-rounder,” Warne wrote. Warne, however, refused to buy the theory that a spinning all-rounder cannot fill in the void created in English cricket by Flintoff’s retirement.
“A seven-eight-nine of Rashid, Broad and Graeme Swann would be pretty effective in Test cricket. Perhaps in time Broad and Rashid would switch positions. Rashid just looks ready to come into the fold and should be picked for the South Africa tour. spent some time with him a couple of years ago when Hampshire played Yorkshire. Rashid seemed confident and knew what he was talking about. At the time he was only 19 or 20, but he had a good understanding of bowling. Most important, he liked to spin the ball,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori on Wednesday joined the likes of Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee and Shane Warne when he became only the eighth all-rounder in Test cricket’s history to collect 3,000 runs and bag 300 wickets. Vettori, who has 3,329 runs to his credit, claimed his 300th wicket when Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara’s shot found Jacob Oram at the mid-wicket region on the first day of second and final Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club here. This is the 34-year-old Vettori’s 94th Test appearance. Other cricketers to have achieved the milestone are Kapil Dev (Ind), Ian Botham (Eng), Richard Hadlee (NZ), Shaun Pollock (SA), Imran Khan (Pak), Shane Warne (Aus) and Chaminda Vaas (SL).
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