Uncapped Shoaib Bashir Still Stranded In The UAE for Indian Visa
The England team arrived in Hyderabad on Monday ahead of the five-match Test series against India. The players were involved in an extensive training session, yesterday. The England Cricket also took to their Twitter handle to upload pictures of the same.
However, there have been a couple of bad news they dealt with ahead of the start of the series. Earlier, Harry Brook pulled out of the series and went back home due to personal reasons. He was a vital cog in England’s batting line-up and his absence could prove to be a major blow for the team.
However, his replacement, Darry Lawrence has joined the squad, and will be interesting to see if he can make it straight into the playing XI. In another blow to their ambitions, young spinner, Shoaib Bashir is still stranded in UAE due to visa issues.
Bashir is part of England’s Test squad for the series against India but still hasn’t been able to join the squad. The spinner awaits his visa clearance to arrive in India.
Shoaib Bashir Cricketer Career
The 20-year-old spinner has only played 6 first-class matches so far for Somerset and managed to pick 10 wickets. He, however, made it to the squad as England was confident of his ability to produce goods in sub-continent conditions.
In light of his visa issues, coach Brendon McCullum is confident that Bashir will join the squad in time.
“Bash will join us hopefully tomorrow, he’s got a couple of issues with his visa coming through. We’re confident on the back of the help from the BCCI and the Indian government that it will sort itself out pretty quickly as well,” England coach Brendon McCullum said on Shoaib Bashir’s delay.
England’s Test skipper Ben Stokes is also coming into the series after undergoing knee surgery in November, last year. Stokes has, reportedly, recovered quite well and McCullum believes that the skipper will lead the side in the first Test match.
“He looks like a greyhound. He’s put the work in, everyone knows his work ethic is phenomenal. I’ve seen him running around and I think he’s good to go. We’ll obviously make that call as late as we need to. But he’s put all the work in, and we’ll just have to wait and see.”
The first Test match between England and India is slated to take place from 25th to 29th January 2023 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
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