Adil Rashid’s renaissance as a red-ball cricketer has been rubber-stamped by the ECB, after he was named in their list of centrally contracted Test players for the 2018-19 season.
Rashid, who was lured back to the Test fold by the new England selector Ed Smith, played an important, if bit-part, role in the 4-1 victory over India this summer, claiming 10 wickets at 30.90, including a series of key breakthroughs at Edgbaston and The Oval in particular. He will travel to Sri Lanka on Sunday as his country’s first-choice specialist spinner in both Tests and limited-overs cricket.
He is one of three new names in the ECB’s ten-man list, with Surrey’s Sam Curran earning recognition for his Player-of-the-Series performance against India, and Jos Buttler – like Rashid, a surprise pick as a previously white-ball specialist – rewarded for his telling performances since making his Test comeback against Pakistan in May.
Rashid’s inclusion follows last week’s news that he and Yorkshire have patched up the differences that led to his signing of a white-ball-only contract earlier this year. His new one-year county deal covers all forms of cricket, and thus meets the ECB stipulation that, from next season onwards, players would not be considered for Test selection unless they were playing first-class cricket.
Not that Yorkshire will now have to honour the monetary side of that deal, however. Test specialists and those playing in all forms of the game will have their salaries paid in full by the ECB, while those on White Ball contracts will receive their supplement on top of their County salary.
With Alastair Cook dropping off the Test list in the wake of his international retirement last month, there are no other omissions from the eight names who were centrally contracted for the 2017-18 season. That number includes Ben Stokes, who faces a Cricket Disciplinary Committee hearing in December in the wake of his arrest in Bristol in September 2017.
The white-ball list is also largely unchanged from last year – a reflection of the stability of England’s ODI squad going into next season’s World Cup on home soil.
Jake Ball is the only player to slip off what is now a 13-man list (Alex Hales, like Stokes, is included irrespective of his CDC hearing) while Surrey’s Tom Curran – who impressed on the tours of Australia and New Zealand but missed this summer’s ODIs with a side strain – is the only recipient of an Incremental contract.
Under the structure, players in both formats will receive a ‘ranking’ based on their performances on the pitch, as well as a number of other factors, including off-field contribution, fielding and fitness. Those rankings will then correlate with the level of remuneration.