In Shoaib Bashir, England look to have backed the right horse for the Ashes
28 November 2024 9:17am GMT
At Hagley Oval, no slow bowler’s paradise, England’s rookie spinner Shoaib Bashir produced a day-one performance that is significant both for the bowler himself and his team, and with an eye on challenges 12 months down the line.
The Christchurch ground has only been hosting Tests since Boxing Day 2014 – a project to redevelop it was fast-tracked after the city’s devastating earthquake – but in 14 matches, Bashir’s four for 69 from 20 tidy overs was just the second four-wicket haul taken by a spinner there (Shakib al-Hasan took the other).
Meanwhile, there have been 37 examples of seamers taking four or more wickets at Hagley, so New Zealand did not even bother to pick a front-line spinner for this match. Among spinners, only Nathan Lyon for Australia in 2016 has taken as many as three wickets on the opening day of a Test there.
That match was Brendon McCullum’s last as an international cricketer, in which he famously blazed 145 from 79 balls, scoring the fastest Test ton on the way, and the England head coach has a good sense of what is required from a spinner in these conditions.
“The thing about bowling [spin] in this country is you are not going to have five wickets every time, spinning pitches, etc,” McCullum said last week. “There will be times to take time out of the game, chip in with a wicket, but then there might be an innings where a chance presents itself with conditions – Hamilton for instance might be a surface where he comes into his own. We need to reduce expectations, not expect him to take loads of wickets but perform his role and chip in and when the time comes, he has the skills to play a match-winning role.”
Bashir, 21, held up his end of the bargain on his first time bowling in a competitive match on New Zealand soil. He admitted he was not expecting to bowl 20 overs, given the green surface. But England’s seamers were wayward early on, and needed him to plug a gap. All four seamers struggled with the footholds for their front leg in the first session, which resulted in a total of 11 no balls – seven from Gus Atkinson, more than he has bowled in his eight previous Tests combined – and numerous drag-downs. In a wasteful passage, Bashir did not help, gifting Tom Latham four overthrows with a wayward return from mid-on that left stand-in keeper Ollie Pope with no chance. It was an inauspicious start to his day.
‘He did a fantastic job into the wind’
When Bashir entered the attack in the afternoon session, his struggles continued. His early overs were characterised by dropping too short but, in his second over, he was handed a confidence-boosting gift, when Rachin Ravindra inexplicably planted a full-toss into the hands of midwicket. Never mind how, a crucial partnership had been broken. That helped him settle, and by the ninth over he was in a lovely rhythm, deceiving none other than Kane Williamson in the flight, and almost having him stumped.
In the final session, Bashir led England’s fightback. Tom Blundell was surprised by the bounce – a feature of batsmen facing Bashir for the first time – and picked out point. Nathan Smith was done by turn and bounce and taken by a perfectly-placed man at leg-slip, before Matt Henry was caught at long-on just as a nasty partnership was brewing.
Bashir did much of his work bowling into the wind, which required him to keep his action especially strong. Williamson was impressed, saying: “He did a fantastic job into the wind – they were two very, very different ends. The way he did that and picked up a few wickets was obviously an excellent job. He bowled nicely, got a bit of drop, he’s a tall guy so got some bounce too, and he got some rewards.”