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Adil Rashid likened England team-mate Rehan Ahmed to a \u201cyounger brother\u201d and is relieved the teenager would probably not have to endure the pitfalls he did in his early years.<\/p>\n
England selected both frontline leg-spinners in their T20 series opener against the West Indies in Barbados and were vindicated as the pair shared five of the home side\u2019s six wickets to fall.<\/p>\n
Rashid, who made his 100th T20 international appearance in England\u2019s four-wicket defeat at the Kensington Oval, thinks he relies more on flight and variations, while reckoning Ahmed bowls quicker.<\/p>\n
He’s 19. He’s got his own journey. He’s got the tricks. He’s got the ability and he’s got the confidence<\/p>\n
But Rashid, 35, does view Ahmed as his protege and the duo might end up dovetailing in England\u2019s T20 World Cup defence next year in the Caribbean and United States if they continue to impress in tandem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s way down the line,\u201d Rashid said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of cricket yet to be played. Myself and Rehan are going to keep coming out, try to do the best we can and leave the rest to the selectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I definitely look at him as a younger brother. He\u2019s 19. He\u2019s got his own journey. We\u2019re completely different bowlers. He\u2019s got the tricks. He\u2019s got the ability and he\u2019s got the confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always talking; just keeping it simple, enjoying it and let nature take its course. The more he plays and the more experience he gets, things will get better for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rashid marked his landmark appearance on Tuesday by becoming the first England male bowler to take 100 wickets in the format although it was not always such smooth sailing in his career.<\/p>\n
He first earned England recognition in 2009 but leg-spin was still a distrusted art at the time and after a couple of innocuous displays, he was thrown on the scrapheap for half-a-dozen years.<\/p>\n
It was only through careful nurturing during Eoin Morgan\u2019s transformative captaincy of England\u2019s white-ball sides from 2015 onwards that Rashid got back in \u2013 and he has hardly looked back.<\/p>\n
Rashid is pleased that Ahmed, who bounced back from conceding 19 in his first over to record figures of three for 39 against the Windies, should not have to suffer a similar fate.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs time\u2019s gone on, it\u2019s definitely got a lot better in that sense and people understanding more about leg-spin which is a great thing,\u201d the double World Cup winner said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s completely different from 2009, times have moved on. You always learn as time goes on, you always develop and with Rehan now, with what he\u2019s doing, hopefully he can develop as he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
England falling behind in the five-match series continues a disappointing sequence of white-ball results after their shock group-stage exit at the World Cup and an ODI series loss to the Windies.<\/p>\n
They have precious little time to digest their latest setback as the series resumes on Thursday in Grenada, where Reece Topley could play his first match since a broken finger ended his World Cup early.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s bowlers leaked 14 sixes to the Windies\u2019 battery of big-hitters, but Rashid insisted conviction remained high within the group despite limited success of late.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t always win World Cups. You can\u2019t win series every time,\u201d Rashid said. \u201cObviously we\u2019d love to do that but it\u2019s part and parcel of sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just in cricket, in football you see the best in the world \u2013 one minute they win a World Cup, the next minute, they lose. That\u2019s just natural and part of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still confident and have got belief in ourselves, we\u2019ve still got a really aggressive team. All we\u2019ve got to do is go out there and just really have that self-belief in ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for whether he took any satisfaction from his achievements, Rashid added: \u201cIt\u2019s always nice to get a milestone like that for myself but it would have been better if I\u2019d got the milestone and we\u2019d won.\u201d<\/p>\n