England captain Ben Stokes revelled in Shoaib Bashir’s five-star performance against the West Indies, claiming the spinner “showed the world” he belongs on the big stage.
Bashir took five for 41 as England ransacked the West Indies batting lineup on the fourth evening at Trent Bridge, knocking the tourists over for 143 to take the series with a crushing 241-run victory.
The 20-year-old spinner went from spare part at Lord’s last week – where he was not required to deliver a single ball – to leading man as he stepped up with a big fourth-innings finish.
Bashir removed Kirk McKenzie, Kavem Hodge and Alick Athanaze in the space of three overs to derail the tourists before cleaning up Jason Holder and last man Shamar Joseph to hand his side an unassailable 2-0 lead.
“I think what Bash has done today is to show the world what he can do,” said the skipper.
“That wicket hardly offered anything for a spinner throughout the whole Test match and look at what he was able to do today.
“The way in which he can change his pace, produce over-spin and under-spin…I think he showed his full bag of tricks. He’s got so much talent and the ceiling is so, so high. He’s got an unbelievable desire and a will to get better and learn.
“He was so aggressive and his intent was always to look to take wickets and was never just to hold an end up. It’s really good for a young guy to come out and put in a performance that wins England a Test match, it’s pretty cool for him.”
Bashir now has three five-wicket hauls in his first five appearances for his country, after taking two on turning tracks in India over the winter. But his selection was still something of a gamble by England, with Stokes heavily involved in the decision.
At the start of the season Bashir found himself behind Jack Leach in the Somerset pecking order, with the more experienced man expected to get the nod in the Test side too. Bashir’s chances were limited enough for him to take a loan move to Worcestershire last month, but England chose to bet on him anyway.
And Stokes’ satisfaction at seeing the call pay off was clear.
“It’s been a really strange couple of months for him since India, having to go out on loan through circumstances that are completely understandable,” he said.
“That’s where communication comes into play and where I’ve got to take responsibility and speak to Bash. I picked up the phone to him and we had a good 20-25 minute chat around everything.
“The decisions we make are all based around not only how far we think their talent can take them, but whether we think they’re good enough for international cricket straight away. If you think you can identify talent, you can throw them into an international environment and give them the confidence, that they’re going to progress really quickly.
“I don’t want to sound like it’s an ‘I told you so’ kind of thing but it sort of is.”
Stokes also joked about reducing Bashir to a ‘thanks for coming’ outing in the first Test and revealed head coach Brendon McCullum tried to get him into the game.
“It was a ‘TFC’, yeah,” he laughed.
“Every time we came in for a break Baz was going ‘this is Bash, if you haven’t met him already’. It’s all fun and games but Bash just loves being in this dressing room, he loves the fact that he’s part of the group and he loves the fact he’s out there playing for England.
“This week we were just telling him to show off his skills and I thought he did that.”
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