I've no time to get a post together on Bopara right now... but what follows was my summary of Rashid's claim as made in another thread...
Adil Rashid has been one of the outstanding success stories of 2007: the PCA ratings make him the 7th most valuable player in this year's County Championship!
Code:
LVCC Points 2007 Player County Batting Bowling Field Capt. Wins Pld Pts Average
1 Gibson, Ottis Durham 96.66 406.71 6 0 6.0 15 515.37 34.36
2 Ahmed, Mushtaq Sussex 28.69 448.84 3 0 7.0 15 487.53 32.50
3 Warne, Shane Hants 66.12 270.10 19 15 5.0 15 375.22 25.01
4 Kaneria, Danish Essex 28.63 325.23 0 0 5.0 13 358.66 27.59
5 Ramprakash, Mark Surrey 342.37 -1.80 13 0 5.0 15 358.57 23.90
6 Caddick, Andrew Somerset 14.99 303.03 1 0 9.0 15 326.82 21.79
7 Rashid, Adil Yorks 114.81 194.39 8 0 4.0 15 321.19 21.41
8 Chapple, Glen Lancs 56.45 244.66 4 0 4.0 12 309.11 25.76
9 Naved-ul-Hasan, Rana Sussex 44.29 252.27 5 0 6.0 14 307.56 21.97
10 Willoughby, Charl Somerset 6.03 283.07 2 0 10.0 16 299.49 18.72
First look at how his batting shaped up against that of his illustrious (mostly Test playing) Yorkshire colleagues:
Code:
Yorkshire 2007 - LV County Championship - Division One
Name M I NO R HS Avge 100 50 Ct St
J A Rudolph 15 22 3 1078 220 56.73 4 3 19 0
Younus Khan 13 19 2 824 217* 48.47 3 0 11 0
A McGrath 14 22 2 931 188* 46.55 3 6 11 0
A U Rashid 15 21 4 790 108 46.47 1 7 8 0
Rashid held his own in comparison with Younis Khan... one of the most successful Test batsmen in the world (with a Test average of 48.98).
Now look at his bowling return for the season:
Code:
Name O M R W Avge Best 5w 10w
M J Hoggard 205.4 47 644 32 20.12 5-32 2 0
D Gough 287.4 74 876 37 23.67 6-47 3 0
T T Bresnan 332.0 71 1090 34 32.05 4-10 0 0
A Shahzad 80.4 10 313 9 34.77 4-22 0 0
J N Gillespie 238.3 53 803 23 34.91 3-40 0 0
A U Rashid 412.2 46 1578 40 39.45 5-88 3 0
Younus Khan 85.5 10 342 8 42.75 4-52 0 0
Note first that despite his youth and inexperience... he's been their senior bowler this season: the 40 wickets is awesome... but check out just how much Yorkshire relied on this youngster: 412.2 overs in 15 matches means he was trusted throughout and never really protected.
Compare Rashid's season with those of a couple of other leg-spinners... including the newly resurgent Schofield, whose "Excellent domestic performances in the 2007 season saw him called up for the England Performance Programme in the winter of 2007-08" and who "was rewarded for his success in 2007 with a new two-year contract at Surrey"...
Code:
Name O M R W Avge Best 5w 10w
S K Warne
(Hampshire) 438.1 56 1479 50 29.58 6-83 5 1
A U Rashid
(Yorkshire) 412.2 46 1578 40 39.45 5-88 3 0
C P Schofield
(Surrey) 186.5 29 650 16 40.62 5-52 1 0
Sure... Warne obviously came out better... but considering the comparison is with the greatest exponent of legspin that the world has ever seen... Rashid's figures stand up to comparison (especially as his home wickets were in Yorkshire... hardly known for being receptive to legspin, especially in this of all seasons).