Ben Stokes praised a breakthrough performance from Shoaib Bashir after he became the youngest England player to take a Test five-fer on home soil. The captain said the 20‑year‑old bowler had “showed the world what he can do” as West Indies were skittled for 143 and the second Test was won by 241 runs.
“That wicket offered hardly anything for a spinner throughout the whole Test match, and to be honest I didn’t think it did today,” Stokes said.
“The way he can change his pace, overspin, underspin – he showed his full bag of tricks today. He’s got so much talent, his ceiling is so high and he’s got an unbelievable desire and will to get better and learn. The great thing about Bash is if you see him get hit over his head, he starts smiling and he’s all right. I love the way in which that doesn’t affect him.”
This was Bashir’s 15th first-class game, with his promotion to the Test side for the winter tour of India – and his selection for this series when he was not even in his county side – seen by many as premature.
“The decisions we make are based around not only how far their talent can take them but because we think they’re good enough for international cricket straight away,” Stokes said.
“A great way to look at it is, this is the worst they’ll be. If you think you can identify talent and throw them into the international environment and give them confidence, give them backing, they’re going to progress really quickly.
“Bash showed everybody what he could do in India where conditions were in his favour, but seven wickets on this wicket and the way he bowled – I don’t want to say it’s an ‘I told you so’ sort of thing, but it sort of is.”
Having spent the best part of 11 sessions working themselves into a position from which they could feasibly win the match, West Indies proceeded to lose it in one. “I’m disappointed because we know we can do a lot better than what we showed,” said Kraigg Brathwaite, their captain.
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“The main thing is to learn from it. This game is gone, it’s history, we can’t bring it back. Cricket will always bring challenges.
“We can say we’re not far away, but it’s important to learn. We still have five Test matches remaining this year. We’ll keep learning, and by the end of the year we’ll be better off.”
