ESPNcricinfo reported on Thursday that English player Adil Rashid has obtained permission to travel to Makkah to perform Hajj this season after speaking to Eoin Morgan, Matthew Mott and Rob Key, that luckily understand and support his decision.
Due to this reason, the sprinter will automatically miss England’s white-ball series against India as well as the latter stages of Yorkshire’s T20 Blast campaign.
Adil Rashid, who is known to be a devout Muslim, is expected to fly with his wife to Makkah on Saturday and will return in mid-July, right before England’s white-ball game against Africa that kicks off on July 19. The Hajj, the annual pilgrimage for physically and financially able Muslims around the world, will take place this year from July 7 to 12.
While speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Adil said that he had been wanting to perform Hajj for a long time but had difficulty due to time constraints. He added that he had spoken to the ECB and Yorkshire about this and luckily they understood his decision.
Furthermore, he explained that for him performing Hajj was one of his greatest moments as a Muslim as well as for his faith and himself. He confessed that since he is still young, strong, and healthy, he felt the need to do the pilgrimage this year.
The 34-year-old, who will miss three T20s and three ODIs against India during his trip to Saudi Arabia, denied that his departure was related to the game against India. He said that the reason did not cross his mind at all, He left purely for personal reasons and had nothing to do with cricket in that sense.
Finally, the cricketer praised Eoin Morgan and the England hierarchy for creating a very supportive environment for him and his teammates who are also Muslim namely Moeen Ali and Saqib Mahmood.
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