After an unconvincing start to the county season for three of England’s preferred Test XI, the routine victory over Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge provided a timely boost.
Zak Crawley, averaging 31 from eight Championship knocks for Kent which included four single-figure first-innings scores, notched his first Test hundred for almost two years; Ollie Pope, averaging 33 across four matches for Surrey, racked up his highest score since his Hyderabad epic; and, in the most dramatic shift, Shoaib Bashir, who’d mustered two wickets at 152 during a miserable three-match stint with Glamorgan, collected nine in the match.
Such is the England’s management’s faith in the trio that there’s a strong chance they would have been picked for the series opener against India however they’d fared in Nottingham. But in the case of Bashir in particular, his performance offered some welcome breathing space, and another chance for Ben Stokes to bang the drum for his mercurial spinner.
After a nervy first few overs, the innings victory was a personal triumph for the 21-year-old, who became the youngest Englishman to take 50 Tests wickets and was named Player of the Match.
Fourth Test five-for ✅
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) May 25, 2025
Career-best figures ✅
Shoaib Bashir impressed against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge👏#ShoaibBashir #ENGvZIM pic.twitter.com/aSYkSdgpMT
His two dismissals of Zimbabwe’s keeper Tafadzwa Tsiga, dragging the batter forward and then castling him with deliveries that ripped between bat and pad, showed why England have identified him as a rare talent who can have sustained success at Test level.
Speaking last October, Jeetan Patel even drew parallels with the great Ravichandran Ashwin. “He has three or four different types of spin,” said England’s spin-bowling coach. “Square spin, over spin, and the degrees within that. You watch Ashwin bowl, and how he uses them all, Bash is not that far down the track, but he possesses the talent to try to access that.”
Bowling closer to the stumps than he had done previously, particularly when operating round the wicket to Zimbabwe’s left-handers, Bashir said he also benefitted from a straighter run-up. “It just allows me to get better shape on the ball so I land it on the seam and then, if I want to miss it for the ball to go straight on, I can do that as well. It just builds into my action nicely.”
Perhaps more important than the technical tweaks is the reassurance of playing under the protective cloak of Stokes, who highlighted Bashir’s “unbelievable natural ability” after the match.
Effectively third-choice spinner at Somerset behind Jack Leach and Archie Vaughan, shipped out to whichever struggling county needs a twirler for a game or two, Bashir transforms into an entirely different proposition when he arrives for international duty, stepping out of the phone booth with three lions on his chest.
We’re well-accustomed to domestic players who find the pressure and scrutiny that comes with international cricket too much to cope with; much less familiar is the workaday county understudy who suddenly blossoms into a Test-quality performer. On England duty Bashir walks taller, smiles more broadly, bowls with more snap and bite. “England cricket is my happy place,” he said during the Zimbabwe Test.
6-81 in 18 overs 🔥
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) May 24, 2025
Shoaib Bashir was on fire in the second innings against Zimbabwe, becoming the youngest since Fred Trueman in 1952 to pick up a six-for for England in Test cricket.#ENGvZIM pic.twitter.com/F1wp1Zzgzj
The numbers bear that out in stark fashion. At county level, Bashir’s 18 wickets have come at an average of 84.05. For England he’s collected 58 scalps at 36.39, boasting the best strike-rate of any English spinner since the Second World War. The discrepancy is even more pronounced when Bashir is playing under Stokes’ captaincy, averaging 32.52 in 12 Tests, compared to 64.57 in the four matches where Ollie Pope has led the side.
There were murmurings during Bashir’s short spell with Glamorgan that he didn’t always appear to be clear about his gameplan, or how he should execute it. With Stokes at the helm, direction and encouragement is always forthcoming. There’s protection, too, with the usually ultra-aggressive skipper prepared to give Bashir cover on the off-side, appreciating his rough diamond needs some TLC in order to sparkle.
“The skill is undoubted,” said Stokes of Bashir, “but a big progression with him, I think, is working out building towards a dismissal, not getting too giddy. That was the word that he used out there [in the Trent Bridge Test] – not getting too giddy with things.”
He will need a cool head for the forthcoming challenges. Phil Tufnell heralded Bashir’s performance against Zimbabwe as his arrival as a Test-match bowler, but for all the confidence shown in him, and all the natural talent, a nine-for against a side who had been convincingly beaten a week earlier by a county select XI doesn’t address concerns about his durability for two five-Test series against India and Australia.
Of all the leftfield selections since Key, McCullum and Stokes took charge three years ago, Bashir’s remains the most extraordinary; a stripling spin bowler learning his craft at the highest level, having skipped all stepping stones of the pathway, while rivals with vastly superior records are overlooked. It’s unprecedented in English cricket, outrageously audacious, but somehow, for the most part, it’s worked.
That faith will be put to the test in the coming months, but where Bashir is concerned, Stokes is not for turning. He has ordained Bashir a Test match spin bowler, and Bashir has responded in kind.
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