England leg-spinner Adil Rashid hits back at Vaughan over stupid comments

England leg-spinner Adil Rashid has hit back at Michael Vaughan after the former captain described his selection for the first Test against India as “ridiculous”.

Rashid was included in a 13-man squad even though he has opted out of playing first-class County Championship cricket for Yorkshire this season.

His selection for next week's first Test on the back of his one-day form has not gone down well with Vaughan, an ex-teammate of Rashid's for Yorkshire, who described his selection as "stab in the back for county cricket".

Writing in the Telegraph newspaper, he added: “It basically says our county game, the finishing school for our cricketers, does not matter any more and that it is irrelevant.”

Rashid, who won the last of his 10 Test caps in Chennai more than 18 months ago, said Vaughan was “talking nonsense” and said his opinions “did not matter to anybody”.

“When I mentioned at the start of the year I will not be playing red-ball cricket, he tweeted something then,” he said in an interview with the BBC. “He was being controversial and saying



his stupid things then too.

“I don't think he has an agenda against me. I played under and with him but sometimes ex-players come out and start talking nonsense about current players.

“There will be people out there who are not happy. There will be haters, like the pundits who are saying it is a disgrace. That is not my fault.”

Vaughan could not resist another dig at Rashid on Friday, tweeting: “I am stupid for wanting someone to prepare to play the No1 Test team in the world by playing a 4 day game with the red ball.”

Yorkshire chief executive Mark Arthur said the county were “very surprised” by Rashid's recall.

The player responded by casting doubt on his future at Headingley.

“If they treat me like they have done, don't see any value in me and are disrespectful to me, I have to think about the future in terms of which county I play for,” said Rashid.

National selector Ed Smith has made it clear that in order to be eligible for Test selection next year Rashid must return to the domestic four-day game.