- Shoaib Bashir took two wickets on Day Two of the second Test at Trent Bridge
- The young England spin bowler is beginning needs time to find his standing
- Ben Stokes is standing by the 20-year-old talent who has his best years ahead
This was a decent start to Shoaib Bashir’s home Test career, but because of his age and lack of experience there is much to learn for a player identified as a component of next year’s Ashes attack.
Bashir was always going to be looked after by England captain Ben Stokes and even when he went for some boundaries, he was kept on, bringing back memories of the emotional intelligence Stokes showed towards Tom Hartley in India earlier this year.
One thing you must remember about Bashir is that he is 20 and as a spinner, you’re probably not peaking in international cricket until you hit 30.
In contrast to Graeme Swann, who spent 10 years learning his craft in county cricket and didn’t make his debut until 29, he is learning on the job.
Learning about the control required by an off-spinner in the first innings of a Test match when there isn’t a lot of spin there.
Shoaib Bashir was England’s best bowler on Day Two at Trent Bridge as he claimed two wickets
The 20-year-old spin bowler (middle) was looked after by his England team-mates at Trent Bridge
England captain Ben Stokes (left) showed confidence in Bashir’s bowling capabilities
Before lunch on Friday, he bowled a bit too straight. In contrast to someone like Joe Root, who is more round arm, Bashir releases the ball right up at the horizontal and so the ball can keep going down leg side on the angle.
Post-lunch, he changed that, bowling a little bit more outside off, slower, with more flight, inviting more modes of dismissal. Bowling straight, you might get a caught round the corner or a catch in the deep like his first wicket when excellent work from Harry Brook got rid of Mikyle Louis.
But targeting the top of off stump brings in bowled through the gate – think of Swann’s 2009 dismissals of Ricky Ponting – catches for slip and wicketkeeper plus LBW.
It also helps a spinner having fast bowlers at the other end because like batting, bowling is about partnerships. If Mark Wood is roughing opponents up with bouncer after bouncer, they question where they are going to score and attack the other end.
Bashir has to realise that sides are going to come after him and he coped with that pretty well. For example, he got hit for a boundary from a bit of a hack from Louis and dismissed him next ball. Stokes will know that the only way England’s first-choice spinner is going to get better is by bowling.
What they’re looking for him to do is to get over spin and some drop on the ball, looking to go past the outside edge of left-handers’ bats and hit off stump when bowling to right-handers.
It was an interesting day all round for England because they’ve got to win in the present and think of the future as well because if you’re going to win in Australia – as well as being a bit more ruthless with the bat and getting big runs – you must get wickets on flat pitches.
English cricket need more of these kind of days if they are going to win away from home and they have a captain who is excellent at trying to find ways of dismissing opponents, working out on pitches like this that do nothing – no swing, reverse swing or spin – that it requires imagination like Gus Atkinson executed banging the ball into the set Kraigg Brathwaite.
Bashir releases the ball right up at the horizontal and so the ball can keep going down leg side on the angle
Bashir has to realise that sides are going to come after him and he coped with that pretty well
For a Test spinner, very rarely does a pitch turn first innings, maybe off the damp occasionally, but then second time round it suddenly starts to turn and everyone says ‘over to you.’
It can be a hard lesson, but Swann is a good example to Bashir, because when he started his career with Northamptonshire, he could rely on deceiving the batter off the pitch.
Only when he moved to the less spin-friendly ground here at Trent Bridge was he forced to deceive the batter in the air.
Moving to Nottinghamshire made Swann an international bowler and Bashir will have to develop the same art in readiness for touring Australia in 16 month’s time. That’s how Nathan Lyon gets his wickets, and yesterday Bashir began shaping his learning curve.