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Adil Rashid to play to his strengths against Chris Gayle and West Indies

There are 101 days to go until England’s World Cup campaign gets under way against South Africa at the Oval and one player who should thrive during the team’s exclusive diet of limited-overs matches until then is Adil Rashid.

Rashid’s 19 Test caps have returned fleeting success and after a low-key outing in Barbados last month – a defeat he might have sat out had England not bungled their selection – the leg-spinner returned home for the birth of his second son. This departure came with talk that his time in the longer format may be up.

Moeen Ali, his close friend and spin-bowling partner, believes Rashid can still be a world-beater in Test cricket if managed correctly but it remains to be seen whether Joe Root, the captain, shares this view. By way of contrast Rashid is one of Eoin Morgan’s go-to bowlers in the one-day side and it is here where he appears most comfortable.

“If that is what Moeen believes, he must see something in me,” said Rashid, who rejoined the squad last week and tuned up for Wednesday’s ODI series opener against West Indies here in Bridgetown with two wickets in England’s sole warm-up fixture.

“But you have to work hard and have performances day in, day out. I’m still a long way off that in Test cricket, becoming that world-beater.

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You have the odd performance here and there but to back it up consistently has so far been a bit of a challenge. Now the preparation is for white-ball cricket. I will focus on that, my strengths, and what I’m looking to work on leading up to the World Cup and beyond. The World Cup will be massive. We’re all looking forward to it. But there’s a lot of cricket before then.”

Rashid’s return to the Test side last summer came despite having renegotiated a white-ball contract at Yorkshire and earned him a central contract. Should he slip out of contention for this year’s Ashes, he acknowledges he may need to speak to the club once more. “We’ll communicate and come to an agreement over what is best for the team and myself. If that means playing, it is that.”

Such thoughts can be put on hold for now, however, with the challenge of taking on West Indies at the forefront. Rashid, England’s leading spinner in ODI cricket with 119 wickets, has long had clarity over his role and has no qualms taking on Chris Gayle after the Jamaican opener’s pledge to explode at the start of the series.

Rashid said: “There are concerns [about Gayle] but you have to go out and stick to your strengths and be confident that you can get him out. We’re all human and make mistakes. So it takes only one ball for him to make a mistake and get out. It’s that kind of mindset that we need.”

England look set to have a full squad available at the Kensington Oval. Jos Buttler has returned from a break and Chris Woakes, who played on Sunday, reported no ill-effects from the knee injury that meant he missed the Test series.