Wrapped in cotton wool, leggie Adil awaits his launch in year 2009

When Adil Rashid suffered a stress fracture last year, there were countless crossed fingers in English cricket circles.

When Adil Rashid suffered a stress fracture last year, there were countless crossed fingers in English cricket circles. Though a bit insensitive, a joke doing the rounds then was: the 19-year-old leggie, with those uncalled for Shane Warne comparisons, couldn’t take the burden of expectations.

But in a year’s time the injury has healed and Adil, now 20, is a first division cricketer at Yorkshire who is seen as England’s next poster boy. He is expected to fill in the space left vacant by Warne in international cricket. As a product of the England Cricket Board’s (ECB) spin bowling programme, Rashid’s exploits have already reached far and wide through the county circuit. Further praise from Terry Jenner, who saw him at the Yorskhire Academy as a 14-year-old has put Rashid in the brackets of those who, in typical English style, need to be wrapped in cotton wool.

Being famous in England has its own share of pressure, media for one and unrelenting expectations the other. For Rashid, the day will come when he’ll have to live up to all of it. For now, he can soak in the comfort that England are giving him to grow as a cricketer. “It’s never made me sit back and take notice ever,” says Rashid when asked if being an Asian has had any effect, good or bad. “In fact, I’ve always been encouraged, it’s been wonderful,” he adds.

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The ECB is busy preparing a calendar for this talented youngster and marking a date by which it believes he’ll be ready to take up international pressure. At Loughborough, where the ECB’s spin academy is situated, chief coach David Parsons believes “Rashid will be a better bowler, in terms of physique and ability by 2009.”

Parsons doesn’t mince any words when he says Rashid happens to be “the best leg-spinner” England has ever had simply in terms of natural talent. The other day at Chelmsford, where the Indians are playing the England Lions —Rashid is in the XI — Sachin Tendulkar spoke highly of the spinner and his ability to deliver a perfect loop. “He looks like a great talent. Unfortunately, for him, the wicket wasn’t helping the least but he definitely looks like someone who’s got the flair and talent,” Tendulkar said about young Rashid.

The Bradford-born spinner, in return, could only gush at the way his talent was spoken of by the master batsman himself. “It’s nice to hear him (Tendulkar) say that. Yes, it’s been a little difficult bowling here but again, it was also a lesson to bowl to the Indians. They play spin so well,” Rashid says.

Not just leg-spin here, Rashid is more famously known as one of Yorkshire’s best all-rounders, so much so that when he began playing for the II Division County, he was asked to open. “I’ve always loved batting. In fact, leg-spin is something that was always there in me, it came very naturally. It was batting that I always yearned for,” he says.

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Rashid averages close to 31 with the bat in first class cricket, four fifties to boot. A century and eight wickets in an under-19 match against Indian Colts last year catapulted his status as an all-rounder even further. It is his bowling figures, though, that talk a lot about the class he is in. Six wickets in his county debut against Warwickshire, three five-wicket hauls and four four wicket-hauls in 15 first class matches, an overall economy rate of 3.51 and the Dennis Compton Award in 2006 to count for, Rashid’s cricketing abilities promise a lot.

“Playing for England will be a dream come true,” he says in an accent that doesn’t quite fit well with his very Asian features. England have given him a lot and he’d like to pay back something in return.