Shoaib Bashir offers nod to future for England with Ashes target in mind

Word is yet to reach us as to whether England’s cricketers ended up at Mega Munch on Sunday night following that surging late victory at Trent Bridge . Just off Nottingham’s slightly chaotic market square, it did a sterling job two years ago – the scene of Ollie Pope’s first doner kebab, apparently – after so-called Bazball first burst into life.

Although a bit has changed since. Of the XI that beat New Zealand that day with that breakneck chase of 299, only four remained for the 241-run victory against West Indies that secured a first Test series win for England’s men since Pakistan in late 2022. Pope, Ben Stokes, Zak Crawley and Joe Root are the survivors, and Matthew Potts is still in the squad, but Jonny Bairstow, Alex Lees, Ben Foakes, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson have either moved – or been moved – on. So much for it being a cosy club.

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Amid this recent turnover, the arrival of the 20-year-old Shoaib Bashir is the most fascinating. Jamie Smith does not keep wicket at Surrey but is in their first-choice XI and even a cursory scan down the scorecards of Cricket Archive shows the amount of time he has spent behind the stumps in his life (answer: a lot). Bashir, however, is not in Somerset’s first-choice red-ball side – Leach, fit again, is the senior man this season – and his record when he does play in the County Championship is 16 wickets at 70 runs apiece.

It has been some pick and one that, after Bashir toiled away in India for 169 overs and a commendable 17 wickets, paid out a further dividend on Sunday. West Indies were a bit punched out, their spirited efforts across the first two and a half days emptying the tank. But the figures of five for 41 that left Bashir celebrating with a Cole Palmer shiver – “I don’t really watch football,” he said. “Maybe he copied me!” – were not simply the product of tired, inexperienced minds at the other end.

As Bashir himself noted, his height – “6ft 4in and still growing” – means good bounce but also natural variation from the one that skids on. And much like Moeen Ali, whose fourth‑innings record in Test cricket was stellar (and underrated at times), Bashir went wider to the right-handers second time around and was more confident with his changes of pace. That slider to bowl Jason Holder was as tasty as an offering from Mega Munch because of the one that had earlier ripped back in from outside off and went over the stumps by a whisker. “That was the most special one, I reckon,” Bashir said.

On top of this, Bashir is remarkably unflappable for someone so young, seen in his mature response to that visa wrangle at the start of the India tour, not getting downbeat after failing to catch his captain’s eye at Lord’s, or simply the way he brushes off being hit for six like it’s a minor inconvenience.

“I take things step by step and I think religion helps me with that,” said Bashir, a practising Muslim. “I’m always going to stay grounded, stay humble. I’m just trying to enjoy every moment I have in an England shirt.”

All together, these attributes were the clincher when Bashir was picked in the squad over the left-arm spin of Leach. And a team openly building towards the next Ashes – yes, yes, here we go again, etc – has possibly noted that left-arm spin does not really cut it in Australia. Not since Bert Ironmonger during the interwar period – 74 wickets in 14 home Tests – has an Australian left-arm spinner had a significant impact on their own pitches. The next most? Allan Border’s 19 wickets at 40, including 11 in one Sydney Test. Steve O’Keefe, who has recently retired with 224 Sheffield Shield wickets at 25 to his name, won just two of his nine caps at home.

Why? Shane Warne for one, clearly. But maybe the harder Test pitches in Australia tend not to offer much turn from the middle of the strip when left-arm finger spinners bowl to right-handers either; Nathan Lyon, for example, profits in part from the foot holes left by Mitchell Starc. Rehan Ahmed is well liked – and a personal view is that Mason Crane should not be discounted – but England investing in a leggie at home was never going to be straightforward. This meant an off-spinner needed to be sourced and one who generates bounce. And so amusing as it is that Stokes’s interest was first piqued by a clip of Bashir bowling on social media, the thinking thereafter goes a bit deeper than a handful of nice deliveries to Alastair Cook.

The question, really, is whether Bashir – clearly still raw and not much of a batter – can be sufficiently hothoused between now and the plane to Australia in 18 months’ time; whether two home summers and two winter tours of Pakistan and New Zealand are enough.

It feels peak Bazball in terms of optimism but having a former off-spinner among the coaches helps here, Jeetan Patel sending Bashir out there on Sunday with orders to “show off his skills”. The same goes for Stokes, an empathetic captain who, even with challenging fields at times, pumps up more tyres than the good people at Kwik Fit.

These are early days for Bashir and the road ahead will almost inevitably feature bumps along the way. Nevertheless, it has been a promising start.