Cricket fans have been spoilt recently with all four formats of the game being played, with Somerset once again reaching the quarter finals of the T20 Blast as well as making a mixed start in the Royal London One Day Cup, the Hundred has got underway, but for me test match cricket was once again the biggest crowd puller of all writes Merv Colenutt.
If we turn the clock back 12 months, Somerset left arm spinner Jack Leach was the country’s no1 spinner, but fitness and health issues saw the Somerset bowler sidelined, the biggest surprise however was that Somerset’s Shoaib Bashir was brought into the squad this summer, rather surprisingly so by Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum and if it was a surprising decision. It was a brave one which brought huge success.
Bashir joined Somerset in 2023 and was immediately loaned out to Worcestershire at the start of this season, this after beginning a surprise inclusion for England last winter on their tour of India, but issues with a visa curtailed the tall off spinners hopes of making a quick intro into test cricket.
England captain Ben Stokes obviously saw something in the tall 20 year old off spinner and railroaded Bashir into the 3 test series against the West Indies this summer.
The strange scenario was how the two Somerset spinners swapped roles, to be fair Jack Leach has bowled beautifully to date in the T20 Blast and the Royal One Day Cup Competition and you now have to wonder about the future of Roelof Van Der Merwe who also missed out in the World Cup with Holland.
Bashir was unused in the first test match against the West Indies, but having travelled ourselves recently to Trent Bridge, you had the feeling that the best bowling conditions would be on the first day of a Test or county game.
Considering his lack of first class experience at county level, before his debut in India, you have to congratulate Ben Stokes for having that incredible culture to pick out Bashir so early in his career and get picked for England.
Taking seven wickets on a flat track at Trent Bridge including a 5 for 41 in the West Indies second innings was an incredible feat and you have to say at this point that Stokes and McCullum have made some brave decisions in recent times with Bazball, but also the selections of Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir and they have proved to be match winning decisions.
It will now be interesting to see of the two Somerset spinners, who gets selected for the 3 match test series in Pakistan in October.
As for the mixed start in the Royal London One Day Cup, Gerry Wilson has the motive that not all Somerset members will be happy with so many youngsters playing, with 9 or so first team players playing in the Hundred, but you will hope that the young blood playing, will make their mark and enjoy playing red ball cricket, surely all the franchises looking to buy a part of the Hundred, will not be a hindrance to the much more popular red ball game of Test Match cricket.
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