Mark Butcher: English cricket doesn't rate spin

Following the retirement of Ben Stokes, England are expected to utilise the part time off-spin of Dan Lawrence and re-appointed captain Joe Root in an attempt to balance their side in their first Test match against Pakistan. It’s the same balance they used during the 2025/26 Ashes series, when Will Jacks was selected over Shoaib Bashir to act as their primary spinner and deepen their batting order.

Butcher: Having Joe Root and Dan Lawrence as our spin bowlers is wrong

However, should Bashir make way in England’s XI against Pakistan to make room for four specialist pacers in the absence of Stokes, it would be a continuation of Bashir’s inconsistent role for England.

“Shoaib Bashir has been a project for England, albeit one abandoned when winning the series actually mattered more than entertainment,” said Butcher. “He has been England’s number one choice, rightly or wrongly and for the last, god knows how long. The Liam Dawson bandwagon was pretty strong on the Wisden podcast, he’s now out of the picture, in terms of being England’s best available spinner, who is also a half-decent batter and fielder and all the rest of it.”

“So now, we’re going to play with Joe Root and Dan Lawrence as our spin bowlers. I go on record as saying that is wrong. It will be proven to be wrong and eventually they’ll have to look for another option. And if in a summer where we’ve had literally half a drop of rain in the last two months, a specialist spinner or a spin bowling all-rounder cannot find their way into an England XI then I frankly give up.”

‘English cricket doesn’t think enough of the value of spin for it to be any good’

Bashir has taken 71 Test wickets for England since making his debut in India in 2024, 37 of which have come across 12 Tests at home. Under Stokes’ leadership, his returns for England were more promising than he produced at county level, where he struggled for first XI opportunities at Somerset before moving over to Derbyshire at the start of the 2026 season.

Lawrence averages 46.65 with the ball in first class cricket and is primarily a batter, although has operated as Surrey’s primary spinner periodically in the County Championship. Root’s 74 test wickets have come at an average of over 48. Neither option naturally fulfils the role of a frontline spinner, with Jacob Bethell’s part-time spin offerings also unavailable while he sits the series out injured.

“People will say that English cricket doesn’t produce spinners,” said Butcher. “English cricket doesn’t rate spin. English cricket doesn’t think enough of the skill and the use and the value of spin bowling for it to be any good.”

“So all of the spin bowlers out there have my utter sympathy for the way that their art is viewed, that anyone can do it, everyone can roll their arm over and bowl a bit of off-spin in the nets so therefore, you don’t need someone who does it properly for a living because it’s basically a catch-all skill that everyone possesses. That is our attitude to spin, and that my friends is why we don’t ever produce any spinners because generally speaking people don’t think it is worth anything.”

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