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At Hagley Oval, a slow bowler’s paradise, England debutant Shoaib Bashir produced a performance on day one that is significant for both the bowler himself and his team, and with an eye on the challenges ahead 12 months later.
The Christchurch ground has only hosted Tests since Boxing Day 2014 – a redevelopment project was fast-tracked after the city’s devastating earthquake – but in 14 matches Bashir’s four for 69 from 20 tidy overs was only the second four-wicket haul taken. by a spinner there (Shakib al-Hasan took the other).
Meanwhile, there have been 37 instances of seamers taking four or more wickets at Hagley, so New Zealand didn’t even bother picking a front-rower for this match. Among spinners, only Nathan Lyon for Australia in 2016 took as many as three wickets on the opening day of a Test there.
This match was Brendon McCullum’s last as an international cricketer, in which he made 145 off 79 balls, scoring the fastest Test ton along the way, and England head coach has a good idea of what is required of a spinner in these conditions.
“The thing about bowling [spin] in this country you’re not going to get five wickets every time, spinning pitches and so on. ” 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 an opportunity presents itself with conditions – Hamilton, for example, might be a surface where he comes into his own. sense. We need to lower expectations, not expect him to take a lot of wickets but play his role and compete and when the time comes he has the skills to play a match-winning role.
Bashir, 21, held up his end of the bargain in his first appearance in a competitive match on New Zealand soil. He admitted he didn’t expect to bowl 20 overs, given the green surface. But the English seamers were fickle from the start and needed him to fill the gap. All four seamers struggled to gain footing for their front leg in the first session, resulting in a total of 11 no-balls – seven from Gus Atkinson, more than he bowled in his eight Tests precedents combined – and many trails. In a needless passage, Bashir didn’t help, gifting Tom Latham with four knockdowns with a wayward return from the middle that left replacement keeper Ollie Pope no chance. It was an inauspicious start to the day.
“He did a fantastic job facing the wind”
When Bashir went on the attack in the afternoon, his struggles continued. His first few overs were characterized by falling too short, but, in his second over, he was given a confidence-boosting gift, when Rachin Ravindra inexplicably planted a full toss into the hands of midwicket. No matter how, a crucial partnership had been broken. This helped him settle in, and by the ninth time he was in a pleasing rhythm, fooling none other than Kane Williamson into the steal, and almost leaving him stumped.
In the final session, Bashir led England’s fightback. Tom Blundell was surprised by the bounce – a characteristic of batsmen facing Bashir for the first time – and scored a point. Nathan Smith was done in turn and bounced and caught by a perfectly placed leg-slip man, before Matt Henry was caught at long-on just as a nasty partnership was brewing.
Bashir did much of his work playing into the wind, which required him to keep his action particularly strong. Williamson was impressed, saying: “He did a fantastic job going into the wind – they were two very, very different ends. The way he did that and picked up a few wickets was obviously a great job. He played well, had a little drop, he’s a big guy so he also had some rebound and he got some rewards.
Since the start of the summer, when they opted for Bashir over Jack Leach, England have strongly backed the young man. After a tour of Pakistan in which he improved but was shadowed by 33-year-old Leach and largely outplayed by opposition spinners – he described the experience as “frustrating” – the road ahead was not entirely clear. England have bafflingly brought Bashir, Leach and Rehan Ahmed to New Zealand, giving the sense that as they approach their huge 2025 there is still competition for places.
This will calm down a little now; England intend to include Bashir in their response to Lyon in Australia next year and, in similar conditions with the Kookaburra ball, it was a solid first outing.
Bashir describes himself as “learning on the job” and “not perfect.” That’s true, but he’s improving and exposed in spectacular fashion, having bowled a staggering 90 more overs than any other bowler in Test cricket this year. Spin coach Jeetan Patel has been working with him on the boundary between each over, and one can notice how much he has improved since Ben Stokes returned as captain after an uncertain spell.
“Ben doesn’t tell me much, he just looks at me and smiles, even that gives me so much confidence that I can play my best ball,” he said.
Bashir has a lot of work to do, but this outing has only reinforced the feeling that players Stokes and McCullum have bet on the right horse.
