Adil Rashid has ‘matured as a cricketer’ – Alastair Cook

Rashid’s selection in the squad for England’s first Test against India has led to quite a debate, but there’s been no questions on his form in the lead-up to the game at Edgbaston, though only in white-ball cricket.

Cook had captained Rashid when he started out in Test cricket and expects the leg-spinner to deal with the demands of five-day cricket well if he is given a chance to add to his 10 Test appearances.

“Over the last 18 months, I think he's matured as a cricketer and improved since we last saw him in an England Test shirt. I think he'll be fine,” said Cook, the former captain and England’s leading scorer in Tests.

“Clearly he's going to be nervous because it's a bit of time away from the England team and with the circumstances. But I genuinely think he will cope – he's bowling really well.”

England’s current captain Joe Root has played with Rashid at Yorkshire and should be able to handle the leg-spinner better, feels Cook.

“Joe is in a great position in one sense because he probably knows him better than anyone else, certainly better than I did when I captained Adil. They've got a good relationship. They seem to get on really well and they'd have played a lot of cricket together growing up, that can only be a bonus,” said Cook.

“Certainly the way Joe would have seen him operate over the last two or three years and seen him get better and better – I think that's helpful.”

England beat India 3-1 the last time India visited, in 2014, but India are now the No.1 Test team in the world. Add to that the fact that England are coming into the series on the back of a run of poor results, and there are concerns in the home camp.

“To become the No.1 side in the world, it takes two or three years of really good results and we haven't had that. The team has been changing as we're finding out different things about different players and different combinations,” said Cook.

“You go back to that side in 2011, that was probably the end of two or three years under Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower, playing really good cricket with the same 14 or 15 players. Everyone produced the goods over a period of time. We're a little bit away of that and that's the challenge of this time.”