Spinner Shoaib Bashir in for England debut vs India in second Test, replacing Jack Leach (knee); James Anderson replaces Mark Wood in only other change to side that secured famous win in first Test - follow game with blog on Sky Sports' digital platforms from 4am Friday
Friday 2 February 2024 06:36, UK
England have handed a debut to off-spinner Shoaib Bashir after making two changes to their side for the second Test against India in Vizag.
The 20-year-old comes in for Somerset team-mate Jack Leach, who has been ruled out due to a bruised left knee he sustained during England's thrilling 28-run victory in the first Test at Hyderabad on Sunday.
England's other switch sees James Anderson, 41, replace fellow seam bowler Mark Wood for the game that starts on Friday (4am UK time).
At 41 years and 187 days on day one of the match, Anderson will become the oldest seamer to bowl in a Test in India.
England side for second Test vs India: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (captain), Ben Foakes (wicketkeeper), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson.
Visa issues meant Bashir, who is of Pakistani heritage, racked up 10,000 unwanted air miles shuttling between Abu Dhabi, London and Hyderabad, where he arrived just in time to take in the final day of England's win.
"Bash coming in for Leachy was simple: one spinner out, one spinner. I'm fully backing him and looking forward to hopefully putting on a grand show," said England captain Ben Stokes, with Bashir to join Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and Joe Root in the spin attack.
"There's no issues for me that he's been away from the group for a period of time, then come back in to make his debut. It's not like he's forgotten how to bowl."
The spinner has played just six first-class games, taking 10 wickets at an average of 67, with Stokes first noting Bashir's potential when he saw a clip on social media of him bowling to former England skipper Sir Alastair Cook.
"To be perfectly honest, our training camp in Abu Dhabi was the first real live look I got at Bash," added Stokes.
"The first time I saw him was on Twitter. I think the County Championship put a little clip together of him bowling against Sir Alastair.
"I just saw something. With the height he bowled from, it was very obvious that he put a lot of action, a lot of revolutions, on the ball."
Sky Sports Cricket pundit and former England captain Michael Atherton said: "It is a remarkable selection.
"You have the lone seamer in a 41-year-old Anderson with 183 Test caps and the three spinners with three caps between them - two for Rehan, one for Hartley, none for Bashir.
"Bashir and Ahmed were not even born when Anderson made his Test debut, which is a measure of how remarkable this is."
Anderson, England's all-time leading Test wicket-taker with 690 scalps in 183 matches, returns to the side for the first time since last summer's drawn Ashes series, in which he claimed just five wickets in four games at an average over 85.
The seamer - who averages a healthy 29.32 from 13 Tests in India - has been working on a new run-up, telling The Telegraph last month: "One thing that was not right was my run-up speed.
"I can't rely on that fast twitch snap at the crease that I've had over the years so I've been working on my momentum in my run-up to get speed that way."
Stokes said of Anderson: "It's great that Jimmy is doing good things for the old boys out there. It's huge credit to him and lots of people should look up to Jimmy considering he is where he is at 41.
"Bringing in Jimmy's experience, and the class that he has, is great for us and I think it also goes under the radar how good his record in India is.
"Considering what Jimmy is known for - 'the swing king' and all that - it just proves how good a bowler he is. Taking nothing away from Woody, we just feel like there's a bit more I can turn to him for.
"It's not just picking Jimmy for the new ball, it's everything else he possesses - his reverse skills, his off-cutter skills and stuff like that."
India have not lost a home Test series since 2012, winning 16 in a row since a 2-1 defeat to England 12 years ago.
England won the first Test of the 2021 series, only for hosts India to fight back and secure a 3-1 success.
India wicketkeeper KS Bharat said: "Credit where it's due, England deserved to win [in Hyderabad]. But we have bounced back previously as well so we are looking forward to this next challenge."
"After the game, the atmosphere was absolutely relaxed. They [team management] asked us not to panic. The instruction is very clear: it is a long Test series and we have to focus on good things.
"We just want to play good cricket. That's the message from the captain and the coach."
The hosts will be without Ravindra Jadeja (hamstring) and KL Rahul (quadriceps) for the Vizag Test, with the duo joining Virat Kohli (personal reasons) and Mohammed Shami (ankle) on the sidelines.
England batter Ollie Pope's 196 in the first Test was laced with sweeps and reverse sweeps, strokes India have since been working on in the nets.
Bharat added: "Pope played really good shots. We're definitely looking at the way they went about the first game.
"Playing some reverse (sweeps), that's something we've worked on. We have our set plans now. In cricket and in any sport you have to learn and move forward.
"Playing in India, we play a lot of cricket on these tracks; it's not that we don't know how to sweep, reverse sweep or paddle, but on a particular day, depending on the situation of the team, we as batters take our calls."
Follow over-by-over text commentary from the second Test between India and England, in Vizag, live on skysports.com and the Sky Sports App from 3.30am on Friday (first ball at 4am).
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