Bashir repays Stokes' faith by laying down Ashes marker
The Guardian|July 23, 2024
England's young off-spinner caught his captain's attention on a social media clip but the selection is looking inspired
Ali Martin
Bashir repays Stokes' faith by laying down Ashes marker

Word is yet to reach us as to whether England's cricketers ended up at Mega Munch on Sunday night following that surging late victory at Trent Bridge. Just off Nottingham's slightly chaotic market square, it did a sterling job two years ago - the scene of Ollie Pope's first doner kebab, apparently - after so-called Bazball first burst into life.

Although a bit has changed since. Of the XI that beat New Zealand that day with that breakneck chase of 299, only four remained for the 241-run victory against West Indies that secured a first Test series win for England's men since Pakistan in late 2022.

Pope, Ben Stokes, Zak Crawley and Joe Root are the survivors, and Matthew Potts is still in the squad, but Jonny Bairstow, Alex Lees, Ben Foakes, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson have either moved - or been moved - on.

So much for it being a cosy club.

Amid this recent turnover, the arrival of the 20-year-old Shoaib Bashir is the most fascinating.

Jamie Smith does not keep wicket at Surrey but is in their first-choice XI and even a cursory scan down the scorecards of Cricket Archive shows the amount of time he has spent behind the stumps in his life (answer: a lot). Bashir, however, is not in Somerset's first-choice red-ball side - Leach, fit again, is the senior man this season - and his record when he does play in the County Championship is 16 wickets at 70 runs apiece.

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