For all the talk of Chris Woakes, one of England’s best bowlers did not even make it onto the field for their opening match against Bangladesh.
Adil Rashid instead watched on wistfully from the stands as his apparent replacement, Jake Ball, was knocked around the park by a side who were otherwise rather toothless.
Woakes’ tournament-ending injury only enhances Rashid’s case – not that there was any excuse to leave the leg-spinner out in the first place.
England have not only moved with the times but jumped ahead of them, yet their bowling selection at the Oval did not scream ‘bold new era’.
Yes, there were injury concerns in the pace department, but Rashid is carving out a place among the world’s ODI elite.
No Englishman has taken more wickets than Rashid – 41 – since the start of 2016. Only other two spinners in the world beat that tally; the brilliant Imran Tahir and Rashid Khan, who plays against second-tier competition with Afghanistan.
Traditional thinking in England, which impels you to play your seamers and forget about spin, has also been shown up as archaic. On English soil only paceman Liam Plunkett has taken more ODI wickets in the last 18 months, and Rashid’s economy rate is better than his fellow Yorkshireman.
Rashid should not have to trawl through statistics to make his case, however – he need only urge Eoin Morgan and Trevor Bayliss to watch what’s going on in the Champions Trophy.
The wickets are deader than a doornail. No movement off the air, barely any off the seam and they are not even slow, so the ball is coming on to the bat like a dream. They are, what Morgan would say, ‘ODI pitches’ to an extreme.
Of the quicks it is not just Ball who has suffered. Kagiso Rabada, the newly-crowned No1 ODI bowler, was punished in spells by a sub-par Sri Lanka and Australia’s Pat Cummins got tapped around for nigh on seven and a half runs per over. In contrast Tahir’s leg-spin yielded just over three.
Will Rashid earn a recall?
But it is not just the master who has been having fun. An 18-year-old Shadab Khan, another leggie, was arguably the sole bright spot in Pakistan’s defeat to India.
If a teenager can perform on one of the grandest stages in cricket than Rashid, who has established himself as a genuine limited-overs star, can surely be trusted by England.
Canny variations in flight and pace, never mind types of delivery, are all scribbled down in Rashid’s playbook but the noise emanating from England’s camp ahead of Tuesday’s match with New Zealand is depressingly true to form.
There are supposedly fears that the square and short Sophia Gardens boundaries are not suitable for spinners but former Glamorgan tweaker Robert Croft, who took more than 1,500 wickets in English cricket, probably did alright on his home ground.
The fact is the conditions will be inhospitable for every bowler, seam or spin. At least Rashid with his box of tricks has a chance of cramping up and deceiving batsmen; pace is just as likely to be fired up and hit over a boundary.
Experience is an important factor, too. Ball, with just 11 ODIs under his belt, is not the immediate answer and late call-up Steven Finn, it should be known, is the third-fastest Englishman to 100 wickets in the format.
If Finn and Ball are in the same team, England would lose a lot of lower-order batting power should things go awry – it should not be forgotten that Rashid is more than a handy bat.
England have done so many things right over the past two years but on Rashid – one of their very best options – you fear they won’t see the wood for the trees.
