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Shoaib Bashir (File Photo: X)
England announced their playing XI for the upcoming second Test of the five-match series against India, starting tomorrow, Friday, February 2, 2024. The Three Lions have made a couple of changes in their playing XI, bringing in the veteran James Anderson to replace Mark Wood; it will be Anderson’s first appearance in this five-match Test series against India.
On the other hand, the young spinner Shoaib Bashir is set to make his Test debut as he will be replacing the injured spinner Jack Leach. Meanwhile, the England skipper Ben Stokes has opened up on the first impression of Shoaib Bashir on him.
Stokes revealed about going through a video clip which was shared over X (formerly Twitter). Notably, the 20-year-old Bashir made his first-ever First-Class appearance for Somerset in the County Championship against Essex.
Here’s a look at the viral spell of Shoaib Bashir which impressed Ben Stokes:
19-year-old off-spinner Shoaib Bashir has looked very assured on first-class debut
— County Championship (@CountyChamp) June 11, 2023
He's bowled beautifully to Sir Alastair Cook: here's all 25 balls of their morning contest#LVCountyChamp pic.twitter.com/WWvkg5iLOn
He bowled an amazing spell against former England skipper Sir Alastair Cook; this spell also attracted a lot of eyeballs in the cricketing fraternity, especially the England skipper Ben Stokes.
“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,” said Ben Stokes to ESPNCricinfo.
“I'm in a WhatsApp group with Keysy (Rob Key) and Baz (Brendon McCullum). 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 everything back to us,” he added later.
Just a few days back, Shoaib Bashir was in the headlines when his visa for India was delayed to some issues and he couldn’t make it to Hyderabad to join the England squad.