Shoaib Bashir showed real character to come back with three wickets on day two against Zimbabwe but the young spinner must keep showing signs of improvement to nail down a place in the Ashes, writes NASSER HUSSAIN

Daily Mail​

23-05-2025

This is a big year for Shoaib Bashir.
He is no longer the novice who England picked from nowhere after spotting him on Twitter making his County Championship debut for Somerset in 2023.
This is his now his 16th Test match and, coming into Trent Bridge, he averaged 40 with the ball for England. After a while, those stats have got to start moving in the right direction. You can't just keep saying he is finding his way or that he is a work in progress.
It has also been a difficult start to the season for Bashir in county cricket. He has been loaned out to Glamorgan and taken just two wickets in three matches at an average of 152.
With India coming up and then the Ashes, the pressure is on him. But with all of that in mind, I thought he showed real character against Zimbabwe on Friday.
Having started his spell with a full toss, and another couple of full tosses in his first three overs, you feared a little bit for him. But he came back to get three wickets, two of which were deliveries of real quality.
The ball he got Craig Ervine with was exactly why England picked him in the first place – getting beautiful drop with that high release point and getting the left-hander driving.
Even more encouraging, however, was the ball which bowled Tafadzwa Tsiga. It was a classic off-spinners dismissal of a right-hander, bowling that attacking line, encouraging the drive, and bowling the batsman through the gate.
It reminded me of the way Graeme Swann dismissed Ricky Ponting in the Ashes at Edgbaston in 2009.
If the ball is spinning, that attacking line should be Bashir's stock delivery to the right-hander because it brings in both edges of the bat.
In the past, he has been guilty of bowling too straight, which means the only way he can dismiss the right-hander is either getting him caught at short leg or leg slip.
Bashir's biggest problem, though, remains his control. It's a bit like when Swann made his England debut under my captaincy, when he was a bit young and naïve. You saw he had something but he didn't have that control.
With a wrist spinner, you accept there may be the odd bad ball, but you cannot afford that from a finger spinner, especially in a first innings when you are often needed to do a holding role.
With the way the pitches have been in Australia of late, England have the option of going into the Ashes with an all-seam attack.
I wouldn't do that. I'd always want a spinner in Australia. But if it's not turning big, you need your spinner to get through 20 overs in a day and hold up an end so you can rotate your seamers at the other end. That's what Bashir needs to prove he can do against India if he is to play in the Ashes.
There has been some talk of him dropping out of the team to find a place for Jacob Bethell, who can give England another spin option. But I think that would be too much of a fudge.
Bashir is worth persevering with – but he has got to keep showing signs of improvement.