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England on Thursday announced their playing XI for the second Test of a five-match series against India. The visitors made two changes as James Anderson comes in for Mark Wood while the injured Jack Leach is replaced by young spinner Shoaib Bashir, who is all set to make his debut in the second Test, starting February 2 in Vizag. After visa-delay issues, Bashir, who couldn’t arrive in time for the 1st Test against India, landed on Indian soil last month in Hyderabad. Ahead of Bashir’s Test debut, England captain Ben Stokes revealed how he was left impressed by his bowling, which he saw via a clip posted on X (Twitter).
On his First Class debut, Bashir bowled an impressive spell against former England captain Alastair Cook for Somerset against Essex.
Stokes said that he forwarded the clip to head coach Brendon McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key.
“To be perfectly honest, Abu Dhabi was the first real live look I got at Bash,” Stokes said. “The first time I saw him was on Twitter. I think the County Championship [account] put a little clip together of him bowling against Sir Alastair,” Stokes told ESPNcricinfo.
Even though Bashir took just one wicket on his debut, Stokes felt that the 20-year-old could come handy with his off-spin for the India tour.
“I’m in a WhatsApp group with Keysy (Rob Key) and Baz (Brendon McCullum). I actually did forward the clip on and said, ‘have a look at this, this could be something we could work with on our India tour’ and it just progressed from there. He got selected on the Lions tour and obviously, the coaches on that tour fed everything back to us,” he added.
Watch the spell here:
19-year-old off-spinner Shoaib Bashir has looked very assured on first-class debut
He’s bowled beautifully to Sir Alastair Cook: here’s all 25 balls of their morning contest#LVCountyChamp pic.twitter.com/WWvkg5iLOn
— County Championship (@CountyChamp) June 11, 2023
Another spinner Tom Hartley shone on his debut as England won the game by 28 runs last Sunday. Hartley took seven wickets in the second innings as England bundled India out for 202 in pursuit of 231.
England’s playing XI for 2nd Test match against India:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson.
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