Former England captain Nasser Hussain has praised young spinner Shoaib Bashir for his impressive performance in the second Test match. However, Nasser Hussain acknowledged that Shoaib Bashir still needs to improve his control against right-handed batsmen to reach the next level.
England are currently taking on Sri Lanka in the second Test match of the three-match series at Lord’s in London. The home side scored a total of 427 runs in the first innings, thanks to centuries from Joe Root and Gus Atkinson. Asitha Fernando took five wickets for 102 runs in the ongoing Test match.
In reply, the visiting team managed to score just 196 runs on the second day of the match. Kamindu Mendis, who scored a century in the first Test, amassed 74 runs in 120 balls, including 8 fours and 3 sixes. Shoaib Bashir took one wicket for 21 runs in his seven overs in the first innings.
Really impressed with the quality of Shoaib Bashir’s pitches – Nasser Hussain
In his column for the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain wrote that Shoaib Bashir deceived Prabath Jayasuriya with a well-flighted delivery. Hussain hoped that Bashir could improve ahead of the 2025-26 Ashes series in Australia.
“Shoaib Bashir bowled only seven overs on Friday but I was very impressed with the quality of his deliveries. Then when he got Prabath Jayasuriya to attack, he bowled three deliveries at 53-54mph, one of them held and flew beautifully,” wrote Nasser Hussain.
“Jayasuriya ran down and thought he had reached the field of play, but he was half a metre away. The ball spun and went across the goal. It is early and he needs to work on his line control to the right-handers, but there have been good signs that in Australia next year, Bashir will be difficult to catch on the field,” he added.
Bashir took the wicket of Prabath Jayasuriya with a very sharp delivery on the second day of the second Test against Sri Lanka. Jayasuriya came down the track to take the shot but the ball turned inwards and hit the stumps. The Sri Lankan batsman scored 8 runs in 46 balls before being dismissed by Bashir.
Brilliant Bash 🔥 pic.twitter.com/k3qOjaYVVC
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 30, 2024
Shoaib Bashir learns quickly – Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain said Shoaib Bashir also gave in-form batsman Kamindu Mendis a hard time with his delivery. He also mentioned that Bashir, who was chosen to replicate Australia’s Nathan Lyon, showed impressive spin and skill.
“People will say that I was bowling against the Sri Lankan tail, but that was not the case. I was bowling against Kamindu Mendis, a player who grew up playing against a lot of spin and someone with multiple hundreds in Test cricket in Bangladesh,” Hussain wrote.
“Bashir, 20, has been chosen to try and replicate Australian world-class pace bowler Nathan Lyon ahead of next year’s Ashes and this was the biggest fall I have seen him take to the ball in his young career. It shows he is a quick learner.”
“He was getting that drop because of the amount of overspin he was producing and that meant that even a set batsman like Mendis was struggling to get to him. Mendis was looking for deliveries early on, and there were a couple of times when he played with the defence up and the ball hit the pate of the bat, which is exactly what Lyon does to opponents,” the veteran cricketer added.
Bashir made his Test debut during a match against India earlier this year. He took 17 wickets in three matches, including two five-wicket hauls in his debut series. In total, Bashir has taken 30 wickets in 8 Test matches at an average of 32.17 and a strike rate of 56.10.
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