It has been almost 35 years since England took three frontline spin bowlers to the Caribbean and history does not suggest that Adil Rashid, 20, who starts next year’s tour as the No 3 spinner, will get much of a chance, but his inclusion in the squad shows that England expect this quiet Yorkshire leg spinner to make his Test debut sooner rather than later.

An English leg spinner who can bat in the top seven will always make hearts flutter, but expectation should not yet be heaped upon Rashid’s slight shoulders. Terry Jenner, the Australian leg-spin guru and mentor for Shane Warne, has been working with Rashid since he was 14 and is one of many coaches to urge caution.

Rashid was born in Bradford to Pakistani parents in 1988 and was taken under the wing of the Yorkshire academy, from where he became the first player of Pakistani extraction to represent the county.

In 2005 he took six for 13 for the Yorkshire academy against Sheffield United to start tongues wagging, but it was his batting and four consecutive hundreds for the second team that led to his elevation into the first XI. He has played for England representative sides since under-15 level.

Rashid suffered a stress fracture of his back two years ago and came back with a remodelled, more side-on action. Despite being relatively short at 5ft 9in, one of his strengths is the bounce that he gets.

On his first-class debut against Warwickshire in 2006 he took six for 67 in the second innings. He has two first-class hundreds, a respectable batting average of 31.92, and 140 first-class wickets at 33.50, including 62 in the County Championship first division last season.

Rashid seems to have important supporters. A late addition to England’s training camp in Abu Dhabi this month, he was taken to India for the Test series as a “non-playing squad member”. Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann, who one assumes will contest a sole spinning place in the Test team, may feel under pressure.