The England team have announced their 16-member squad for the upcoming five-match Test series against India which is set to begin in January 2024. The squad led by Ben Stokes saw several senior players like James Anderson and Joe Root being part of it. But everyone was shocked to see a young and uncapped player like Shoaib Bashir in the squad for a big Test series while touring India.
Here, in this article, we will have a look at who is Shoaib Bashir and how he managed to get a national call-up from the England side.
Shoaib Bashir is a right-arm off-spinner who plays for Somerset. He started playing for Surrey as a nine-year-old kid and apart from representing Surrey he played for Middlesex and was also seen playing minor countries cricket for Berkshire U-18 side before making his FC debut at the age of 19.
In October 2022, he was given a contract to play in the 2023 county season by Somerset as he impressed everyone by taking nine wickets at an average of 14.11 for Somerset Second XI against Warwickshire Second XI.
He was constantly seen playing warm-up games before the start of the County Championship in April 2023, and later he was seen making his FC debut for Somerset on 11th June 2023 against Essex at Chelmsford.
Shoaib Bashir in his first FC game itself was troubling legendary batters like Alastair Cook with his terrific spin bowling ability. His first wicket in FC cricket was the dismissal of Sam Cook. Bashir was part of the Somerset team which won the Vitality Blast trophy in July 2023.
Bashir had a very good stint with Somerset in the 2023 County Championship by picking 10 wickets from just 6 games, as a result, he received a national call-up from the England team for the tour of India.
Bashir has played five T20 games, six FC games and seven List-A games for Somerset in his career so far.
