BATSMAN and leg-spinner Adil Rashid was today poised to make his Yorkshire debut in the Liverpool Victoria Championship match against Warwickshire at Scarborough.

A few months ago, 18-year-old Rashid was singled out as the best leg-spin prospect in the country by England's spin bowling coach David Parsons, but it is mainly because of his phenomenal batting form that he has won a place in the first team-squad.

Rashid last weekend helped the Yorkshire Academy achieve their sixth consecutive win in the Yorkshire League by taking 4-60 against Driffield and then scoring an unbeaten 119 to notch his fourth century over the space of a few days.

His versatile performance was watched by Yorkshire's director of cricket David Byas, who slotted him into the squad after hearing that Australian Darren Lehmann would be forced to miss the game because of the calf strain he picked up while batting against Durham at Riverside.

"I want Adil chiefly because of his batting but he also gives us the option of a high quality leg-spinner," said Byas.

Lehmann has still not lost all hope of returning for Yorkshire's Twenty20 Cup quarter-final encounter against Essex at Chelmsford on Monday but Byas will not want to play him if he is only half-fit and in danger of breaking down for a much longer period.

"Darren is the last person we want to lose from the side but his absence creates an opportunity for someone else who will be keen to make the most of it," said Byas.

"I was delighted that we gained our first win of the season by beating Durham so convincingly and I was particularly pleased that it was the result of a good team performance rather than through just one person doing very well.

"Anthony McGrath had a great game, making 201 runs, and Lehmann can score runs even on one leg, but Craig White and Joe Sayers also registered a century opening stand and Jason Gillespie and Tim Bresnan each had outstanding returns with the ball.

"If we have similar team contributions in the present game then there is a good chance we can beat Warwickshire."

Rashid has twice flown out to Australia for specialist coaching from former Australia Test leg-spinner Terry Jenner and one of Rashid's ambitions is to be as good as the legendary Shane Warne.

Rashid, who has just taken his A'-levels at Belle Vue Boys' School, started out with Bradford & Bingley where he played for the second XI before joining the Yorkshire Academy.

He opened the batting for the Academy last summer and had an excellent all-round season, hitting 526 runs in cup and league matches with a top score of 95 and capturing 24 wickets at 26.63 runs apiece.

Fast bowler Mitch Claydon is out of the reckoning after suffering a back injury and has been replaced by Steve Patterson.

Yorkshire from: Sayers, White, McGrath, Lumb, Gale, Bresnan, Rashid, Brophy, Dawson, Patterson, Kruis, Gillespie.