Last December, the punt was on Rehan Ahmed. Just 18 years old, the precocious leg-spinner was handed a debut against Pakistan in Karachi and the results were immediate: a five-wicket haul for England’s youngest men’s Test cricketer. It was stirring stuff, but also entirely in keeping with Ahmed’s progression.
He had already been picked out as something special by Shane Warne as a youngster, bowled England’s under‑19s to a World Cup final, netted with the seniors, landed a Hundred contract and been projected as a future star. Higher honours seemed likely for the prodigy from well before his first call-up.
Shoaib Bashir – Somerset’s 20-year-old off-spinner and England’s gamble this Christmas – has a different story to tell. He got as far as the under-18s with Surrey, his home county, before being let go, and a couple of years ago the plan was to head to university and study accounting and finance. “I had, sort of, my life planned out a little bit away from cricket,” he says. He was twirling away for Berkshire’s under-18s last year after failing to find a way in at any major counties.
Now, after six first-class matches and a handful of white-ball appearances, Bashir finds himself on a five-Test tour of India. So it’s completely understandable that he can’t help but close most of his answers with a sense of disbelief: “I have no words,” he says, before eventually finding them. “It’s just so special, just crazy.” Blessed is a word that keeps coming up, and grateful is repeated at numerous points, too throughout our half-hour conversation.
But England have seen something, even if the record so far – 10 first-class wickets at an average of 67 – is not ideal. It was there in the clips of Bashir bowling to Alastair Cook on debut this June, with the novel sight of a 6ft 4in offie subtly changing pace and flight to spin the ball past the outside edge of England’s great former Test opener. A Lions call-up followed, with Bashir impressing on their UAE training camp and closing it with six wickets against Afghanistan A earlier this month.
When England’s Test head coach, Brendon McCullum, broke the news of Bashir’s selection to him over the phone, tears followed, as did an embrace with his uncle. “I actually ran into his room and hugged him, and he was like, ‘Why are you hugging me?’, and I was crying at the time and he was like, ‘Why are you crying?’. He sort of panicked and I told him. I’ve never seen him cry and let emotions out like he did and that made our whole family quite emotional.”
His uncle, Saj, has been the primary influence from early on, explains Bashir, who grew up in Woking. “He would take me when I was in my nappies with my brother and we would just sit and watch him play at a club called Guildford City, where he was a wicketkeeper-batsman. He told me that I’m living his dream by playing cricket because he didn’t really have the support behind him. He dedicated his whole life to me. So to see me do well was his dream and I’m living his dream at the moment.”
The dream was in jeopardy when Bashir was cut by Surrey as a 17-year-old after coming up through the age group sides. “They gave me a few factors: my batting wasn’t good enough, my fielding wasn’t quite there, and my bowling just probably wasn’t enough.” It sounds pretty wholesale. But Bashir went to work and a five-wicket haul for Berkshire against Somerset last year in an under-18s game got key figures at Taunton talking. He was soon playing with the county’s seconds, and a first professional deal last year was followed by the announcement of a two-year extension this summer.
“I’d not really been to Somerset before. So I was very nervous about meeting new people, but honestly, everyone’s just so lovely, so welcoming. People walk down the streets of Taunton, coming up to you wishing you well and it’s just such a lovely community and the setup here is unbelievable.” Jack Leach, now both a colleague with county and country, has become a good pal. “I’m very close to Leachy. We talk all the time about bowling. We go for lunch, grab a coffee. Leachy’s a legend.”
The names are expected as he lists a roll-call of off-spinners this century he has watched closely: Saqlain Mushtaq, Graeme Swann, Nathan Lyon, Moeen Ali, Saeed Ajmal and Ravichandran Ashwin. “I’ve always been an off-spinner, so I never really tried bowling fast. And now to be on the verge of playing against someone like Ashwin …” Once again, disbelief hits. “It’s just crazy thinking about it.” Swann coached him while he was away with the Lions – “I was just in awe of him” – as did Andrew Flintoff, whose 2005 heyday came when Bashir was just one year old.
“Looking back now on YouTube, I see these highlights. Those celebrations, back in the day, those moments where he took the run out, and he was on his knees and hands up in the air. He’s such a legend, he actually gave me a lot of confidence in my bowling. I just couldn’t believe Freddie Flintoff was stood in front of me, and for him to be calling me by my nickname, like he was my mate, it was something you dream of.”
The reality of five Tests in India, where visiting spinners are usually consigned to second-rate status in the presence of Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, will soon begin. He understands what he can offer England, highlighting that “the bounce I can extract will play a massive part in the subcontinent”. But the task is significant, should he be granted a go, with Leach, Ahmed and Tom Hartley the other spinning options selected for England.
Bashir is measured, a touch philosophical, perhaps well-informed by his own experiences in simply getting to this point. “I take things small steps at a time and whatever is written will happen. So yeah, just ease into it, and hopefully it will go down well.”
