About six and a half months ago, a 19-year-old Shoaib Bashir made his first-class debut for Somerset in an English County Championship match against Essex. He bowled 49 overs for just one wicket in that match, which Essex won by 196 runs. His next five matches weren’t great either. He picked up nine more wickets at an average of 67. But these are plain numbers. In reality, Bashir didn’t need the scorecard to push his case. His first over in County Cricket was enough to impress England’s Test captain, Ben Stokes.
The young off-spinner, however, should thank the social media account of Somerset Cricket and the fact that Stokes is fairly active on X (formerly Twitter). The X account of Somerset uploaded a small video of Bashir’s first over where he bowled to Sir Alastair Cook, an outstanding player of spin.
Bashir has a non-traditional run-up and action for an off-spinner. Instead of easing his way to the crease, he hurries into his stride, but his tall frame allows him to deliver the ball from a good height. That can, at times, create an illusion in the batter’s mind about the flight of the ball. Like it did for Cook. Not once, but twice. The legendary cricketer was beaten twice by Bashir in his first over. Although Cook went on to score a superb 128, those two six deliveries that he faced off Bashir were all that Stokes wanted to see.
The England captain is not one of those to look at scorecards, run-tally or number of wickets. He has his way of thinking. The first thing he did after watching that video of Bashir, was to forward it to a WhatsApp group where head coach Brendon McCullum and ECB managing Rob Key are a part. “To be perfectly honest, Abu Dhabi was the first real live look I got at Bash,” Stokes said. “The first time I saw him was on Twitter. I think the County Championship [account] put a little clip together of him bowling against Sir Alastair.
“I’m in a WhatsApp group with Keysy and Baz. I actually did forward the clip on and said, ‘have a look at this, this could be something we could work with on our India tour’ and it just progressed from there. He got selected on the Lions tour and obviously, the coaches on that tour fed back everything to us.”
Bashir was then picked for the India tour. In England’s preparatory camp in Abu Dhabi, he proved Stokes right. He was more than just a rookie off-spinner. The fact that the Indian batters have a mysteriously poor record – a collectable average of 33 against off-spinners, which is one of the worst among top teams – against bowlers of his kind also played a role in his elevation.
“I just saw something,” he said. “The height he bowled from, it was very obvious that he put a lot of action, a lot of revolutions on the ball. It was something I looked at and thought, this could be pretty good for India. I’ve played a lot of games out here. As a batter, you know what is hard to face, especially from a spin point of view.
“When it came to selection, there wasn’t too much thought around him to be honest, because everyone was very, very impressed with what Bash showed. And everything we wanted in our spin group was answered by Bashir.”
When all was looking smooth for the 20-year-old, visa issues sent his immediate Test future in jeopardy. All members of the England squad flew to India from Abu Dhabi except Bashir. He had to go back to London to complete the formalities. He finally landed in Hyderabad on Sunday and saw his teammates scripting a miracle win.
A couple of days later it was confirmed that Jack Leach would not be able to take part in the second Visakhapatnam and in came Bashir into the picture. Stokes and McCullum did not think twice before picking him as the third spinner for the second Test. “Myself, Baz [Brendon McCullum] and Popey [vice-captain Ollie Pope] will probably have a longer think about it. We looked at the wicket; I gave it a tap, and a play-around to make it look like I knew what I was doing. Bash is in the squad, we haven’t brought him here to have an experience. If we feel we want to turn to him, we will,” Stokes had said. On Thursday, he walked the talk by picking Bashir in the XI. On Friday, it will be Bashir’s turn to repay his captain’s faith.
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