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Rashid feels he is winning the mental battle

Adil Rashid believes he is becoming a mentally stronger bowler after a year back in the England white-ball sides and continues to pick the brains of Shane Warne over the art of legspin

Adil Rashid has been impressively economical in the first two matches against Sri Lanka  •  Getty Images

Adil Rashid has been impressively economical in the first two matches against Sri Lanka  •  Getty Images

Adil Rashid believes he is becoming a mentally stronger bowler after a year back in England's limited-overs sides and continues to pick the brains of Shane Warne over the art of legspin.
Rashid has made an impressive start to the one-day series against Sri Lanka, conceding 70 runs from 20 overs in the opening two matches, to continue the positive impression he has created since being recalled at the beginning of last summer. He has played all of England's white-ball matches since his return to the side.
Against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, he has twice bowled his 10 overs straight through, keeping the batsmen on a leash during the middle stage of the innings, and on Friday was rewarded with the wickets of Angelo Mathews and Seekkuge Prasanna.
In the modern one-day game, Rashid knows there will be times when batsmen will get hold of him - as has happened on a few occasions since his return - but is learning how to handle the pressure on the international stage.
"I've just got to look to keep improving day by day and game by game," he said. "I feel I'm getting better mentally and with my skills. But you can always have a bad day, a bad game or a bad series. So you have to be strong mentally.
"It's been a good 12 months for me, especially in the white-ball stuff. Every series that has gone by I've looked to improve. I've got experience as well and got more confident. I've looked to adapt to different conditions and teams, too. I've looked to study individual players, studying the strengths and weaknesses of individual players I've got a lot better that way."
As well as studying the players he has come up against, he has again been tapping into the vast knowledge of Warne after the pair briefly worked together during England's series against Pakistan in the UAE last year. Warne was in Dubai on a promotional trip and attended net sessions in Sharjah where he worked with both Rashid and Pakistan's Yasir Shah. Their paths crossed again this summer.
"We had a general talk about legspin," Rashid said. "He gave me tips and stuff. It was good to see him and good of him to give me a few tips. It was about the basics. Keeping it simple, bowling the same ball, ball after ball after ball and letting natural variation to take over from the hand and the pitch. It was about a positive mindset and keeping it simply, not really a technical thing."
While the one-day and T20 game has been good to Rashid in an England shirt, he had a tougher introduction to the Test game against Pakistan in the UAE - eight wickets in three matches at 69.50. He did show some of his mental toughness when he bounced back from a record-breakingly expensive wicketless debut innings to take 5 for 64 in Abu Dhabi and almost conjure a final-day England victory.
England return to Asia later this year for Test series against Bangladesh and India with Rashid expected to be part of the touring squads. He said his Test ambitions remained "quite strong" but was not thinking too far ahead. "That's a long way away. At the moment, I'm just trying to concentrate on the ODIs and the T20 game; whatever is in front of me. Hopefully that will take care of itself down the line."