Attributes, character and “world-class” potential have propelled the 20-year-old Shoaib Bashir into England’s Test squad for India, with Rob Key, the men’s team director, saying county form can “almost be disregarded” when it comes to picking spinners for the toughest assignment in international cricket.
Bashir made his first-class debut at Somerset just six months ago but is the surprise pick among England’s spin quartet for the series that starts in Hyderabad on 25 January. Jack Leach returns from the back stress fracture that scuppered his Ashes summer, the precocious 19-year-old wrist-spinner Rehan Ahmed is recalled, while Lancashire’s Tom Hartley makes it a second uncapped spinner.
