IND vs ENG: Why England is handing out debut to Pakan-origin rookie off-spinner Bashir | Cricket News
Last Sunday, despite landing in Hyderabad at around 8.30 am after a visa delay, Shoaib Bashir turned up at the Uppal stadium midway through the morning session of the first Test. It was a Test where he could have made his debut, but he didn’t show any disappointment. Ben Stokes told him that he could go back to the hotel and beat the jet-lag. But the 20-year-old would seat himself right next to the boundary hoardings and soak in the atmosphere.
In the next four days, Bashir, who is a player of Pakan-origin, had just one full training session and on Friday would make his debut. In the net sessions, despite all the adventure that England’s batsmen show, it is still hard to miss Bashir, who stands at 6ft 4 inches. He is slim and agile and with a smooth run-up, and a tall trajectory, it is hard not to miss why Stokes was immediately hooked on to the off-spinner just watching a video-clip. “The first time I saw him was on Twitter. I think the County Championship put a little clip together of him bowling against Sir Alastair. I’m in a WhatsApp group with Keysy (Rob Key) and Baz (McCullum). I just saw something and thought, this could be pretty good for India,” Stokes said.
19-year-old off-spinner Shoaib Bashir has looked very assured on first-class debut
He’s bowled beautifully to Sir Alastair Cook: here’s all 25 balls of their morning contest#LVCountyChamp pic.twitter.com/WWvkg5iLOn
— County Championship (@CountyChamp) June 11, 2023
That was that. Having gone to UAE with England Lions, Stokes and McCullum would only see him for the first time during their preparatory camp in Abu Dhabi before they flew to Hyderabad. There is a reason why they thought of straightaway playing him in the first Test. Bowling to batsmen who are constantly looking to get one over you with absolute disdain can be demoralising at the nets. On Wednesday, as India’s batsmen brought out all kinds of sweeps at the nets with their spinners feeding them in the arc, R Ashwin started altering his lengths to get one over them. For, Bashir doesn’t have enough craft in his game yet to do the same.
But every time he was hit, he would make a point to pick the ball himself and have another go at their batsmen. Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley and Stokes went hard at him, but not once did he seek a breather. At times, he would even beat them going slower through the air and bringing out a broad smile. At other times, he generated turn and bounce with his action and height to trouble the Bazballers.
“His main attribute is, he spins the ball very hard, which I think Swann is a big advocate of,” Alastair Cook said on TMS podcast. “You can teach control and discipline and all that when you are young. But not the ability to spin the ball. He’s tall and has some very natural attributes which will help. What I was most impressed with when I faced him was he didn’t bowl that many bad balls. He had control, he liked the contest. It will be interesting to see how he goes,” Cook added.
For a captain and coach who haven’t hesitated to throw players in the deep end, handing debut to Bashir is the bravest of them all. Unlike even Tom Hartley who has had white-ball experience and more than a dozen FC games, Bashir has played only 6 county games and made his debut only last June. He has only 10 wickets to his name and has an average of 67. But more than Rehan Ahmed and Hartley, England seem to be more excited about Bashir. For sure, India will attack him from the word go and put early pressure on him. But Stokes would definitely back his young spinner like he did in the case of Harltey. Over to Bashir to show what he made of. Like Stokes said, “experience is overrated.”
