The numbers behind Rashid's white-ball genius

Yahoo

17-02-2025

When England dominated cricket's white-ball world for the best part of seven years, winning both the 50-over and T20 World Cups, one man was a constant: Adil Rashid.
In fact, such was Rashid's importance to Eoin Morgan's white-ball wonders, he was probably the first name on the teamsheet.
And heading into his ninth global tournament, the Champions Trophy, which starts this week, the 37-year-old remains as crucial to England as ever.
So what makes Rashid so good, how does he compare to other leg-spinners, and what is his favourite dismissal of an England career spanning almost 300 caps in all formats?
BBC Sport and CricViz find out.
Adil Rashid is England's Mr Consistent - he's rarely injured and almost never out of form.
Only Sri Lanka's Kusal Mendis has played more one-day internationals since the 2015 World Cup, while in T20 internationals Rashid is eclipsed by only Pakistan's Babar Azam and Ireland's Paul Stirling in the same time frame.
Despite making his debut in both formats in 2009, it wasn't until the 2015 rebuild under Morgan that Rashid became a fixture in the side - and he has taken more than 300 wickets in the decade since.
No other bowler in the world has taken more one-day wickets in that period, and the next three bowlers on the list - Rashid Khan, Adam Zampa and Kuldeep Yadav - are also leg-spinners.
There are bigger turners of the ball (Jeffrey Vandersay) and some get more drift (Yuzvendra Chahal), but none have the complete control and mastery of his art that Rashid offers.
He is the slowest of all the leg-spinners who have bowled 500 deliveries in ODIs in the past five years - which is a quite deliberate tactic.
"Some leg-spinners look to bowl it really quick, short of a length and don't spin it as much," Rashid told BBC Sport.
"Some, like myself, like to bowl it a bit slower to try and beat people in the flight and get the drift, dip and spin.
"With T20 cricket, people have started to bowl a bit quicker because they don't want to get hit for sixes or fours but I've been brought up encouraged to get the ball above the eyeline, get the batsman driving, coming towards me and coming for me."
Rashid, who says he "loves" the art of spin bowling and the magic it brings, has won matches for England on every continent.
Since making his ODI debut in 2009, Rashid has a better average than all other leg-spinners as a combined in the Americas, Asia and Oceania. It's relatively similar to his peers in Europe and Africa.
Crucially, as well as the dozens of wickets he's taken in each country, he has an economy rate of less than six an over everywhere but in the West Indies (6.32).
And while logic suggests his best years were under Morgan (141 wickets at 33), he actually has a better average, strike-rate and economy rate while playing for current captain Jos Buttler (59 at 27).
In England's most recent 3-0 defeat in India, Rashid was a cut above - taking seven wickets at 27, including that of Virat Kohli twice.
You see, Rashid is particularly good at taking down the opposition's star man...
In short, good.
Of the four batters he has dismissed the most in ODIs, three can be considered among the best in their team: Steve Smith (Australia, seven wickets at 22), Mahmudullah (Bangladesh, five wickets at 18) and Kohli (India, five wickets at 22). The other one of the four is Marcus Stoinis (Australia, five wickets at 22).
He's taken the scalp of Pakistan's Babar Azam three times but has struggled against New Zealand's Kane Williamson (one wicket at 178). Williamson, his compatriot Ross Taylor and Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal often come out on top against him.
Not only does Williamson repel Rashid, he is good at dominating him - with his strike-rate of 123 only bettered by two men to have faced him in more than three innings: Mitchell Santner (New Zealand, 134) and Hardik Pandya (India, 130).
When BBC Sport asked Rashid which batters he thought played him the best, he name-checked AB de Villiers of South Africa, Kohli, Babar, Williamson and West Indies' Andre Russell, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard.
Asked for his favourite dismissals playing for England, he said: "The Kohli wicket in an ODI at Headingley in 2018. It was a nice leg-spinner which pitched outside leg and hit the top of off."
How can one man dominate one format of cricket (OK, two!) but not the other (Test cricket)?
It's not for the want of trying on either Rashid's or England's part - in 19 Tests, he has taken 60 wickets at an average of almost 40.
But while leg-spin has become a key weapon in one-day cricket in the past 20 years, its influence in Test cricket has waned.
In the 2000s, when Rashid broke through at Yorkshire, more than 10% of all overs bowled in Test cricket were sent down by leggies. That has dropped to 3.7% in the current decade.
When Rashid was called back into the Test team - he played 15 of his 19 Test matches between 2016 and 2018 - he wasn't the reliable bowler he is today.
In all formats in that period, he sent down a full toss or half-tracker 7% of the time. Between 2022 and 2024, bad deliveries - which come with the territory of being a leg-spinner more than most other bowling styles - were restricted to just 3%.
Given Test cricket allows batters time to wait for the bad delivery, Rashid could actually be a better option for the red-ball team now than when he first made his comeback.
The good news for England fans is that Rashid is still performing well and flourishing under Buttler's leadership. And when he takes two wickets or more in an ODI, England win 72% of the time.
Chuck him the ball, Jos.
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