The ball that got Shoaib Bashir going was not even a wicket-taking delivery. With West Indies already hurtling towards defeat inside a session on the fourth evening at Trent Bridge, Bashir looped one up outside off stump, enticing Jason Holder into a drive. But even Holder’s giant stride could not get him to the pitch as the ball dipped, spun and beat the bat, only to just clear the top of middle stump.
On Sky, they pulled up Graeme Swann’s delivery to Ricky Ponting at Edgbaston in 2009. Go back a bit further in the archives and you could compare it to Michael Vaughan doing Sachin Tendulkar through the gate on the same ground in 2002. On that occasion, England picked five seamers and had to fall back on Vaughan bowling 21 overs in the third innings (result: a draw).
There’s no danger of the current England set-up leaving out their spinner, even if Bashir’s previous outing, at Lord’s, had amounted to 32 minutes of batting and not a lot else. His second-innings five-for to seal the Nottingham Test – which included subtly changing his approach to bowl Holder past the outside edge a few overs later – added to a host of accolades already held by Bashir and confirmed why England have invested so much faith in a 20-year-old who was barely known beyond the County Ground in Taunton when he was picked to tour India over the winter.
Selected on the strength of his raw attributes, having only played six first-class games, Bashir confounded expectations to claim 17 wickets in the series and push himself ahead of Somerset team-mate Jack Leach, who left the tour injured, as England’s No. 1 spinner. It has led to the unusual situation of Bashir having to go out on loan in the early part of the season, with Leach preferred at county level after a decade of sterling service.
“Leachy understandably is getting in the [Somerset] team ahead of me,” Bashir said. “He’s played a lot more cricket than me and he’s a class spinner. I learned a lot off him. But a lot of things have happened over the last few years for myself personally and I’m just grateful for everything.
“We had a chat and he was over the moon for me. He just told me to enjoy it, [playing in front of] a home crowd. It doesn’t get better than that. Obviously, I experienced the Barmy Army in India and that was special and even at the start of the day here, ‘Jerusalem’ playing in the background, it’s just so special to make a home debut.”
Heading up to Worcestershire to play one County Championship match and two T20s was “part of the journey. Going on loan was a decision I had to make to play cricket at a high level. When these things happen, I just want to be playing cricket as much as I can.”
With his third five-wicket haul in five appearances for England, Bashir’s Test average of 29.83 is less than half of that in the Championship (70.68). He also now has as many Test wickets at Trent Bridge (seven) as Swann managed in four appearances on his home ground, having joined Nottinghamshire from Northants – a move Swann credited with improving his game due to the less spin-friendly surfaces.
Bashir, understandably, was simply trying to take it all in. “Look, it’s always a learning curve. I’m just grateful for everything that’s been given to me and I’ve just got to keep working hard. All cricket is tough. I’m still learning, still developing.”
On his Trent Bridge performance, Bashir was less enthusiastic about how he had gone in the first innings, when he finished with 2 for 108 – which included taking two of the first three West Indies’ wickets to fall. Despite being praised by his captain, Ben Stokes, for an attitude that meant he continued to hunt wickets even at the cost of being hit, he said that tightening up was still an area he wanted to work on and was “always harsh” in assessing his own output.
“Obviously in India, it’s different conditions. So you come here and first innings you don’t get much time [to bowl]. Just trying to work on consistency. I wasn’t too happy with the way I bowled in the first innings. So it was nice to cash in there.
“Always harsh [on myself], always looking for ways to improve and I think that’s one thing that won’t change. I was leaking boundaries quite frequently, but at the same time, I still was trying to take a wicket and I think there’s a lot to work on from that and just gaining more experience will help me.
“Bowling spin in England is pretty tough, but also you reap your rewards later on as a Test goes and I’m grateful I’m a 6ft 4in spinner because it’s a nice attribute to have. The extra bounce helps. We saw it there. If you land the ball in the right areas, a few will bounce and a few will skid on, so the bounce does help.”
Asked about his favourite dismissal, he landed on the one that got away: “The ball that I bowled to Holder through the gate that just missed the stumps. Yeah, that got me excited. It would have been nice if it had hit the stumps… it spun from wide as well and I wasn’t really expecting that to happen. that was the most special one, I reckon.”
All this is in keeping with the remarkable story of Bashir’s rise, from being released by Surrey at age-group level, winning another county opportunity after impressing against Somerset twos, being picked for England on the back of a clip spotted by Stokes on social media, then becoming the youngest man to take a Test five-for in England – eclipsing the debut efforts of James Anderson (in whose farewell Test Bashir had a walk-on part the week before) 21 years ago.
As for the future, we go back to those attributes – height, release point, revs on the ball – and the assumption that, even before his Trent Bridge performance, he was being groomed for a key role in the 2025-26 Ashes. Not that he feels he has been guaranteed his spot between now and then.
“No, it [conversations with management] was nothing like that. I’m just grateful to be in the position I am. I take things step by step and I think religion helps me with that. I’m always going to stay grounded, stay humble. I remember back when I started things were quite tough for me and growing up cricket wasn’t the easiest thing. So yeah, just trying to enjoy every moment I have in an England shirt.”
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
