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On Sunday, February 2, Shoaib Bashir became the newest Test debutant for England on Day 1 of the second Test match against India at the Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. After picking up the Indian captain Rohit Sharma as his first Test wicket, the 20-year-old called it a “very very special” moment.
After Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bat first on a placid-looking surface in Visakhapatnam, he was the first Indian batter to get dismissed during the morning session on Day 1. Shoaib Bashir got his first Test scalp on a ball spinning into Rohit Sharma at the leg stump, which the right-hander managed to flick around the corner, only to find an alert Ollie Pope at leg gully to take a sharp catch.
This was just the 11th wicket in First-Class cricket for the young Shoaib Bashir, who broke the key opening stand for India after a miserly start for the English bowlers in the first hour. During his chat with the talkSPORT Cricket platform at stumps on Day 1, he said, “For me to get Rohit Sharma out as my first wicket was very very special. He is a great player of spin as well.”
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Shoaib Bashir also thanked his family for helping him get to the grand stage of Test cricket at such an early stage and remarked, “So grateful to God and my family, they have supported me through thick and thin. I had lots of ups and downs in my journey. So yeah, just want to thank them as well.”
The right-arm off-spinner was given an extended workload on Day 1 of his Test career, bowling 28 overs to register figures of 2/100. Apart from the wicket of Rohit Sharma in the first session, he also dismissed Axar Patel in the final session of the day to keep England well in the contest.
India scored 336/6 after 93 overs on Day 1 in Visakhapatnam, with the opener Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring 179 runs unbeaten in 257 balls with 17 fours and five maximums. The rest of the Indian batters couldn’t manage to get big runs, which is far from ideal for them in their quest to level the series 1-1 at the end of the second Test match.
Here are Shoaib Bashir's thoughts on dismissing Rohit Sharma:
