Shoaib Bashir had an experience of only six months in competitive cricket when he was chosen for this India tour back in December.
For captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum though, overall potential matters more than anything else. That is why they backed Bashir and Tom Hartley.
Left-arm spinner Hartley vindicated their trust in him with his second-innings spell in the series opener in Hyderabad, which England won. And in the ongoing fourth Test at the JSCA International Stadium, Bashir’s spell has given England an upper hand at the end of Day II.
Shoaib Bashir
Thanks to the lanky off-spinner’s 4/84 off 32 overs, India were struggling at 219/7 at stumps on Saturday, in response to England’s 353, which was built on Joe Root’s unbeaten 122.
The 20-year-old Somerset spinner didn’t have a good time on debut in Visakhapatnam, struggling to turn the ball and was dropped from the Rajkot Test. Not that he got a vicious turn on this tricky Ranchi surface, but on returning to the XI, Bashir was spot-on in terms of accuracy, relentlessly bowling 31 overs on the trot from the pavilion end. Giving him a break for just an over, Stokes brought Bashir back, this time from the media box end, for his 32nd over of the day.
Bashir’s release point is an advantage. With the help of that, he utilised the low bounce of the pitch to good effect trapping both Shubman Gill and Rajat Patidar lbw after James Anderson shaped the ball in just a bit to make India captain Rohit Sharma nick one behind.
Sending Ravindra Jadeja up the order again at No.5 didn’t work for India this time around. Bashir landed the top-spinner in the right spot before a bit of extra bounce led to Jadeja’s undoing.
After tea, the low bounce worked to Bashir’s advantage once again, earning him the prized scalp of Yashasvi Jaiswal. Pitching on one of the cracks, the ball straightened a little and hit the toe-end of Jaiswal’s bat before disturbing the stumps.
“Shoaib has just bowled to his strengths. His strength is being accurate and bowling stump to stump. He doesn’t try too many different things... Just lets the wicket do everything by hitting the right areas and bowling with good speed using his height,” Siddhartha Lahiri, the global head of coaching at the Rajasthan Royals academy, under whose supervision the Pakistan-origin Bashir has honed his skills for a long time, emphasised.
“Shoaib has had a rocky journey so far. Probably that has instilled some resilience in him,” Andy Hurry, director of cricket at Somerset, told The Telegraph.
“You’ve got to give credit to Stokes too for giving Shoaib the belief that he can deliver at this level.”
Captain’s ploys
Besides Bashir’s spell, the field placements from skipper Stokes were also spot on. For most of the 73 overs so far of India’s first innings, there were five fielders on the off-side and four on the leg and vice-versa instead of a heavy off-side or leg-side field. Stokes never really over-attacked.
Stokes’s field-settings put a chain on Jaiswal’s stroke-making. The Indian tried to force the issue in the day’s final session, hitting Bashir for two boundaries, but his desperation brought about his downfall as well, as he was tricked by the low bounce.
For Sarfaraz Khan, Stokes pushed the cover fielder deeper, inviting the batter to play the drive. Hartley then bowled the off-stump line to further tempt the batsman to play towards that region. Sarfaraz fell in that trap — tried to drive, but the ball turned to kiss the edge of his bat before flying to the slip where a diving Root pouched it brilliantly.
