Just six first-class appearances seldom earn a cricketer a place in the national squad, that too for a crucial Test series. But Shoaib Bashir is now a member of that club.

The England selectors’ decision to include 20-year-old Bashir for the five-Test tour of India beginning late in January is certainly an interesting call, considering the young off-spinner has had only six months of experience in competitive cricket (seven List A and five T20 matches alongside six first-class appearances).

However, it seems his Somerset experience wasn’t the only aspect to win him a berth in the England squad. The selectors also seem to have taken into account the time Bashir spent at the Rajasthan Royals academy at Cobham, Surrey, since he was an 11-year-old kid.

Under the supervision of Siddhartha Lahiri, who’s the global head of coaching of the Royals academy, the Pakistan-origin player has honed his off-spin skills for the last decade or so with some emphasis on batting as well.

The English cricket fraternity obviously seems to have trust in this young off-spinner, but the move has attracted some criticism too, given Bashir’s limited first-class experience.

“There is a lot of hue and cry, but selections depend on the selectors. Selectors select a player. It doesn’t really matter as people who don’t get selected will always be disappointed. It’s a bold move to get a young offie and put him into that testing water,” Lahiri, also a member of the Royals’ coaching staff and batting coach of Paarl Royals (in SA20) and Barbados Royals’ assistant coach (in the Caribbean Premier League), told The Telegraph from Dubai on Tuesday.

“Besides, he has not really come through the system. He used to practise so much with us, and we are not a county. We are a private academy. From there, the kid has gone and come and taken up every challenge.

“He’s an exciting prospect, he has the height and he has the consistency. So, why not give him the chance and the right exposure!” Lahiri, a former Behala boy who has also been crucial to the progress made by England’s Test middle-order batter Ollie Pope, emphasised.

Having studied at a state-funded school (Fullbrook Working School at Addlestone, Surrey) which is non-fee paying and doesn’t usually provide extra coaching or other extra facilities, the then 11-year-old Bashir used to have his evening snack at the Royals academy and bowl to older players on a regular basis.

“He used to come, practise, have his evening snack and I just made him bowl. Once a week he would do his batting practice,” Lahiri said.

“We keep talking about the Royals’ way of variable volume. And he has had it. I used to make him bowl to 15 or 16-year-olds when he was an 11-year-old child. He has worked to reach this far.”

Warne’s advice

Bashir also had the chance to bowl before Shane Warne during his training at the Royals’ academy.

“One of my highlights of training at the academy is meeting and talking to the great Shane Warne on the art of spin bowling. I was lucky enough to bowl a few balls while he was watching and he gave me a few valuable tips,” Bashir has been quoted as saying by the Royals website.

So, what were Warne’s tips to him? “Shane had told Shoaib to focus only on getting maximum turn without looking at anything else,” Lahiri stated.

“Besides his height, another good thing about Shoaib is that he’s not worried about what one’s thinking about him, which is really a good space to be in,” he added.