Shane Warne

As England’s bowlers were being put on the rack by India at Trent Bridge, it emerged that the chairman of selectors was seeking advice from an unlikely source. Shane Warne, the Australian leg-spinner who for so many years tormented England, was sought out by David Graveney in an attempt to identify a second spinner for England’s winter tour of Sri Lanka.

The first choice, Monty Panesar, was one of the few England bowlers to have any success on Saturday.

Warne is happily assisting England’s management with identifying talent, having already ushered three of his Hampshire teammates — Chris Tremlett, Shaun Udal and Dimitri Mascarenhas — four, if you count Kevin Pietersen, into the England fold. On Saturday, Graveney visited the Rose Bowl to see what else they had in their stockroom.

Warne is an enthusiastic advocate of Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who so far this season has claimed 27 championship wickets at 36.77 and scored 439 runs at 43.9, which is more than enough to qualify him as a lower-order England batsman.

“Shane was very impressed with Adil, although he conceded that he was still very young and just starting out on his career,” said Graveney, who said Warne had been helpful in identifying future England prospects.