India vs England: Streetwise Shoaib Bashir has X factor to become an instant debut hit

Another day, another insight into the world of this England’s selection policy. We knew, of course, about the hunches and the punts, the release-points and the straight-to-the-points. Ashes, Moeen? Lol.

What we did not know, however, was that X, the forum once known as ­Twitter, where you and I go for our Peep Show memes, election interference and to keep tabs on that ginger chap ­running across Africa, is also where England now find their Test match spinners.

“The first time I saw him was on ­Twitter,” Ben Stokes said on Wednesday of the uncapped Shoaib Bashir, who has been handed an international debut as England announced their team for the Second Test against India.

“I think the County Championship account put a little clip together of him bowling against Sir Alastair Cook.

“I did forward the clip on and said: ‘Have a look at this, this could be something we work with on our India tour’. It just progressed from there.”

And how. That meeting with Cook’s Essex in June of last year was Bashir’s first-class debut, one of only six outings at that level on which the 20-year-old can call ahead of what is a rather more prestigious seventh in Vizag, where England are looking to extend their 1-0 series lead.

“He’s got a real street nous about him and he’s incredibly skilful,” Jason Kerr, Bashir’s head coach at Somerset, tells Standard Sport. “The reality is he’s in a great space. For me, he’s got nothing to lose.”

There has surely never been a better time to be an England debutant than under the current regime, and certainly not one who bowls spin.

In claiming seven-for to lead the ­tourists to a thrilling victory in ­Hyderabad last week, Tom Hartley became the third tweaker in little more than a year to pick up (at least) a five-wicket haul on Test bow, following in the ­footsteps of Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed.

The latter will, rather hilariously, be England’s most experienced specialist this week, at 19 years of age and with two caps to his name.

Even by England’s unconventional standards, though, Bashir’s call-up for this tour came as a genuine bolt from the blue, a product of the same pre-Christmas Lions camp as Hartley but vastly inexperienced even by comparison to his fellow novice. In fact, in taking nine wickets on his own Test bow, the Lancastrian came within one of matching Bashir’s career first-class haul.

It is something of a paradox that, despite arriving almost unprecedentedly early in his career, Bashir has reached this point via a rather roundabout route, and we are not talking only about the visa issues and cross-continent goose chase that delayed the youngster’s arrival in India until last weekend.

Let go by Surrey as a teenager, Bashir was spotted by Somerset playing for Berkshire Under-18s in the summer of 2022 and owed something of his breakthrough at Taunton 12 months later to the injury misfortune of Jack Leach, the same player — and good friend — whose knee problem has now opened the England door.

“He was raw, but there are things that you look for, whether it’s batters, seamers, spinners,” Kerr says. “He’s tall, he got a lot of revolutions on the ball, bowled beautifully to left-handers at that stage. And importantly, he obviously spun the ball.

“That adversity, I quite like. He was at his boyhood club and it didn’t quite work out for him. But I quite like that, that he’s gone away, continued to work hard, put in performances and managed to earn another opportunity with us.”

With England buoyant and India weakened, the biggest of them all now lies ahead.