England winning the franchise cricket competition for Rehan Ahmed is a masterstroke

Like Brevis and Smeed, Rehans’ gifts are ideal for the short-form game. He has a great googly that ensures he is powerful against left-handers and right-handers. Like Rashid Khan, perhaps the most sought-after player on the T20 circuit today, Rehan combines that leg spin with audacious hitting with the bat. Looking to secure victory on the third day, England used Rehan to execute his Nighthawk tactic and moved him to third. Naturally, he ran down the field and drove his first ball for a four.

These are the qualities that will interest IPL franchises in the coming years; indeed, Rehan is already under contract in the new UAE international league, which starts next month. England recognizes the benefits brought by the IPL. But IPL franchises are increasingly buying teams from other countries as well, allowing some players to have three contracts with the same team.

Players who adopt this path can play little, if any, first-class cricket: the time simply does not come. Many of the current generation of young cricketers around the world have ambitions to play all three formats of the international game; due to expediency and the financial and sporting opportunities of a short career, many of them slip to specialize in the white ball game.

And so England have pondered Rehans’s development, so they have had to weigh up the prodigy’s usual fitness issues as well as the wider trajectory of his career. Rehan has long been identified as the likely long-term successor to Adil Rashids in white-ball cricket. But in a curious way, his white-ball appeal cemented the case, accelerating Rehans’ journey to the Test side. In the years to come, Reha may rarely – if ever – be seen bowling with the red ball in England in April and May, rather than the white ball in India.

Handing over the Test cap to Rehan after just three first-class games was therefore the clearest possible indication of England’s faith in the suitability of his gifts for red-ball cricket. At the same time, it was a signal to Rehan of the rewards that can await if he develops his first-class game. Where once it might have been considered sensible to hold back prodigies, the dynamic of talent management in the modern game has changed: accelerating players’ path to the five-day game is perhaps the best chance of keeping them there for years to come. For those invested in the medium-term health of England’s Test team, it would seem pointless if – as Brevis might well do – Rehan was seen with just the white ball. And so, in a curious way, it was practical to make Rehan England’s youngest 710 Test cricketer.