How a WhatsApp forward helped England's Shoaib Bashir make Test debut against India

Talented young England spinner Shoaib Bashir made his Test debut on Friday in the second match against India. Ahead of the second Test against India, the English cricket team skipper Ben Stokes recalled what he felt having watched a video of Bashir bowling to Alastair Cook. Stokes revealed that right after watching the video he decided to forward it to a WhatsApp group comprising England head coach Brendon McCullum and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) managing Rob Key. **India vs England 2nd Test match Live** “To be perfectly honest, Abu Dhabi was the first real live look I got at Bash. The first time I saw him was on Twitter. I think the County Championship [account] put a little clip together of him bowling against Sir Alastair,” Stokes said, as per Sky Sports. “I’m in a WhatsApp group with Keysy and Baz. I actually did forward the clip on and said, ‘have a look at this, this could be something we could work with on our India tour’ and it just progressed from there. He got selected on the Lions tour and obviously, the coaches on that tour fed back everything to us,” he added. A video of Cook getting beaten while facing Bashir has now gone viral on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. The video was originally shared by the official handle of Somerset Cricket. “Shoaib Bashir is bowling for the first time in County Championship cricket and immediately has Cook in trouble. 60/0,” read the post.

Shoaib Bashir is bowling for the first time in @CountyChamp cricket and immediately has Cook in trouble. 60/0

LIVE STREAM ➡️ https://t.co/aRtGCP76ez#ESSvSOM#WeAreSomerset pic.twitter.com/bkRuJ4i5Qf

— Somerset Cricket 🏆 (@SomersetCCC) June 11, 2023

It was also Bashir’s first-class debut. Bashir, at the age of 19, had picked up one wicket in that game. Representing Somerset in that game, Bashir picked up the wicket of Essex’s Sam Cook in the first innings. Essex had gone on to win that game by 196 runs. Bashir currently has 10 wickets to his name in six first-class games. A 20-year-old of Pakistani heritage, Bashir was ruled out of the opening Test against India as he was forced to return home from Abu Dhabi due to visa issues. Bashir, eventually, landed in Hyderabad, the venue for the first Test of the series, on Sunday but it was too late for him to take part in the contest. England had won the Test series opener against India by 28 runs.