IT has been one heck of a summer for Yorkshire’s Adil Rashid both on and off the field, but the all-rounder is aiming to ensure his career continues on an upward curve in the years to come.

The 26-year-old has starred with both bat and, more importantly, ball this season as the White Rose claimed their first LV= County Championship title for 13 years with some ruthless cricket.

In 13 appearances, Rashid has scored 566 runs and taken 40 wickets, including two centuries and one five-wicket haul.

Rashid’s form with the bat was excellent last season too, but his resurgence has got tongues wagging about a possible England comeback for the first time since 2009.

He has taken 82 wickets in all first-team cricket with his leg-spin, and since the start of July he has taken 62 in 21 matches with power to add against Somerset at Headingley, starting today.

To top it all off, he became a father for the first time to a little boy, Muhammad Zain, in June.

“I couldn’t have asked for anything more,” said Rashid, capped ten times by England in one-day and T20 cricket.

“But I’ve still got a lot of room for improvement, a lot to do.

“Improving consistency, bowling balls in a certain area, spinning it more, getting more control, setting the fields, working out the batsman.

Hopefully as I bowl a lot more, that will continue to develop.

“I’ve looked to stick to the basics this season, but I’ve had that freedom of being able to bowl my variations, spin the ball hard, which has come through the backing from the coach, the captain and the players.

“If you have a bad day, you have a bad day, no problem.

You can come back the next day and still be the matchwinner.

“All that hard work we’ve had to do day in, day out, it’s been a fantastic season from start to finish for us.

“The main thing is that we stuck to believing we were good enough. We’ve done the processes, and we’ve won the Championship. The feeling is immense knowing that all the work’s paid off.”

Rashid started the summer in style with a Championship century against Somerset at Taunton, and his best performance came against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford earlier this month.

He scored a century and took five wickets in the same match, a feat which he has now achieved four times in his career, including twice in successive fixtures against Hampshire and Lancashire in 2009.

“It would be nice to finish off the season with a hundred or a five-for – maybe both. That would be lovely,” added Rashid.

“But, obviously, as we’ve said so often this year, you can’t think about that, you’ve got to think about the process.

Hopefully if I do that, the rest will take care of itself.

“Whether we win, lose or draw, it’s going to be a great week. But we want to finish on a high with the win.”

Jason Gillespie has named a 13-man squad, including England Under-19s seamer Matthew Fisher and back-up wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd.

Yorks: Bairstow, Ballance, Brooks, Fisher, Hodd, Leaning, Lees, Lyth, Patterson, Pyrah, Rashid, Root, Sidebottom.