Anthony McGrath column

On a personal level, it was disappointing to have missed the opening game of the season, but I am confident I will be back for the next game with Durham which starts on Thursday.

I was pretty close to being fit for Worcestershire, to be honest, but we did not want to take any risks with this being the first match of a long campaign.

The performance of Adil Rashid at New Road has obviously got everybody talking. Talent wise, he is as good as anyone I have seen during my time at Yorkshire. He is a pretty special player and to take 11 wickets in the opening game of the season is a great start for him.

I know that his performance will have people tipping him for a return to the England side but I just hope the national set-up treats him a bit better when they do next call him up. I was captain of the side when he was last properly involved with England and he came back totally undercooked.

We have got to treat him with a bit of care. If he is going to go away, then he needs to be playing. He obviously wants to be back in international cricket as soon as possible but I think we have seen how much he improves when he plays for a continuous amount of time with Yorkshire.

It is not for me to say when he might get called-up again – but on a biased level, I hope he stays with us for a while yet!

The one thing which I am sure about though is that it is important to make sure that we do not overhype him when he does well – and not get on his back if things do not go so well.

The trip to Worcester was the first of many away days this summer and it is always important to keep yourselves occupied when you are on the road.

We had a sweepstake for the Grand National during the game. Lythy won it but there were a few non-runners in there on purpose so that we could have three horses each.

Unfortunately Ryan Sidebottom got Red Rum, so he did not win – and even worse than that, our physio Scot McAllister pulled out Steve Patterson!

That was nothing to do with me though, of course. All the blame goes to our social secretary Rich Pyrah.