Door open for Adil Rashid to return to Test cricket

Rashid, 30, last played a Test for England on their 2016 series in India. He has 38 wickets from 10 matches in the format, but with England preferring Moeen Ali in non-Asian conditions, he was sidelined.

This season, he signed a white-ball-only deal with his county side Yorkshire, indicating that that was where his focus was.

But since then, Rashid has taken 20 one-day international wickets at an average of 23.95 all summer – including having Virat Kohli bowled with a beauty in the deciding ODI against India – as well as five scalps in four Twenty20 Internationals.

With numbers like that, England have been tempted to bring him into the side for the Tests against India. They have, after all, struggled to settle on a spinner this year, with all of Ali, Mason Crane, Jack Leach and Dom Bess taking up the role at various points.

"This year is probably the best we've seen him bowl," said Trevor Bayliss, the England coach, of Rashid. "He's bowled well in one-day cricket over the last few years, but his control and his consistency this year has been top class and probably the best I've seen him bowl since I've been here.”

England had brought Jos Buttler into the Test side to play Pakistan based on his white-ball form, and it had paid off. So, there was precedent for Rashid to come in as well, Bayliss pointed out.

Having said that, it was still Rashid’s decision to make, if he wanted to be back in the reckoning for the longer formats, he added.

"That's a decision he's got to make. I'm not sure whether Ed Smith [the chief selector] had a chat with him or not. Could he get picked in the Test team on white-ball form? Well, it's already been proven this year it's happened once. So, look I'm sure he'll be up for discussion definitely."

Rashid himself didn’t rule out the possibility. “At this moment in time I’m just concentrating on white-ball cricket,” he said. “But in the meantime if something comes about I’ll be happy.”