Former England captain Michael Vaughan called young off-spinner Shoaib Bashir a ‘world-class superstar’, who has the skills to emulate the success of India’s Ravichandran Ashwin.
Despite England’s five-wicket loss in Ranchi, Bashir aged 20 years and 135 days, Bashir grabbed his maiden five-for — 5/119, playing only his second Test, and returned with a match haul of eight wickets.
“One of the great weeks, celebrating another world-class superstar that we’ve unearthed, Shoaib Bashir. That’s what we’re celebrating. Second Test match, eight wickets, he’s the new Ravi Ashwin, and we’ve unearthed him.”
“So, we’re celebrating a new superstar in English cricket,” Vaughan said on Club Prairie Fire’s YouTube channel.
Ashwin is arguably one of the best off-spinners in the history of Test cricket. The senior off-spinner recently became only the second Indian bowler to snare 500 wickets in the longest format and is set for his 100th Test in Dharamsala next week against England.
India handed England their first series defeat under coach Brendon McCullum and skipper Ben Stokes after winning the fourth Test in Ranchi to take a 3-1 lead in the ongoing series. England had won the first test in Hyderabad by 28 runs. India responded by winning the second test in Visakhapatnam by 106 runs, and then the third test in Rajkot by 434 runs.
This was India’s 17th consecutive test series win at home, where they have not lost a test series since an Alastair Cook-led England bested them in 2012.
For England, it was their first series defeat under captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum.
Vaughan backed England to win the dead rubber, still worth 12 World Test Championship (WTC) points, to be played in Dharamshala from March 7.
“They will go with their best XI. It’s going to be cold in Dharamsala and it will suit England. I expect England to win,” Vaughan said.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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