‘I still have 100% passion’: England’s evergreen Adil Rashid not finished yet

Adil Rashid could be forgiven for tiring of the international cricket treadmill nearly 16 years after his debut. Currently in New Zealand for his 35th international T20 series or tournament, this week he summarised that hectic, monotonous life when talking about the team-bonding mini-break in Queenstown with which England started their winter: “Sometimes you don’t get that opportunity when you’re always on tour,” he said. “You land, you train, you play and you travel.”

Yet his enthusiasm is clear not just when he discusses the immediate future of a team that seems to be flourishing under Harry Brook and his own place in it, but also when watching him train, play or bowl. However, while he was able to stop the Kiwis in their tracks as they attempted to chase down England’s record-breaking 236 at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval on Monday night, when his four-wicket haul included all but one of their five highest scorers, there is nothing he can do to halt time.

Rashid will turn 38 in February, midway through the T20 World Cup. By the time the next ODI version is played towards the end of 2027 he will be nearly 40. His great friend, and now podcast co-host Moeen Ali, just a few months his senior, retired from international cricket last year. But Rashid remains integral: those four wickets took him to 19 so far this year, six more than any other Englishman. Only three English bowlers have taken so many T20 wickets in a calendar year: Graeme Swann in 2010, Sam Curran in 2022, and Rashid in 2021, 2022, 2024 and now 2025. But there are still no thoughts of the end; his focus remains on bringing down opponents, not curtains.

“One hundred percent I’ve still got the hunger, the hunger to play for England and represent my country,” Rashid said. “As an individual, I think that’s the biggest achievement in any sport. I still have that passion there for England. I think that when the passion does die down, or whatever it is, that’s when you think, “OK, right, let’s have a real think about it.’ At the moment I haven’t really thought of anything else. I’ve got that passion, there’s a lot of cricket to be played.

“I want to be part of this team, this squad we’ve got now, on the next journey we have, which hopefully will be nice and I want to be part of it. Hopefully we can experience some wins and win World Cups, all the good stuff. And I’m looking forward to hopefully participating in that journey. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Around the corner things can change very quickly. It’s very unpredictable, life and cricket. I always like to stay present – a game at a time, a step at a time – and let things unfold, see where cricket and life takes me.”

Rashid (left) enjoys winning the T20 World Cup with his great friend and former teammate Moeen Ali in Melbourne in 2022. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

In many ways this is no time to be thinking of endings, but rather of beginnings: a fresh team with a new captain, a new coach and new horizons. “We’re on that journey,” Rashid said. “There are a few new faces. Some have gone out, some have come in, and that’s just part of the cycle. But we’ve got experience, we’ve got youth, we’ve got world-class players, we’ve got Brendon McCullum, who’s a very, very good coach, and everybody’s buying in to what we’re trying to achieve. Yes, there’s going to be hiccups along the way, that’s part and parcel of the game, but we’re definitely focused and really on the ball, for whatever lies ahead.”

The desire to schedule that Queenstown trip, and the recruitment of the former All Blacks mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka, suggests there is currently a particular focus on creating something more from this group of players than just an XI, and Rashid believes this is a particular strength of McCullum’s.

“We feel like a unit,” he said. “We feel like a family kind of environment, backing each other regardless of whether you perform or don’t perform, you have a good day or a bad day. We’re trying to make sure we stick to our morals in that way. Let’s make sure we stick together, that unity we have, that brotherhood.

“It’s a nice thing to have, everybody’s got each other’s backs and that’s the environment that Baz and we are trying to create, and we have created. And hopefully we can, regardless of whether we have a good day or a bad day.

“Baz is very relaxed, chilled out, but he’s on the ball in terms of coaching, he’s on it in that sense. And he wants to create that environment. Yes, we are relaxed, we are chilled, but we’re making sure that when we go on that pitch we’re focused and we’re going for it. A lot of credit goes to Baz for creating that environment, and hopefully we can carry that on for a lot longer.”