Many cricketing fans across the globe raised an eyebrow when they saw that uncapped Shoaib Bashir from Somerset CCC had been called up to the England Test Squad ahead of their tour to India. Nobody had really heard of Shoaib Bashir nor had they seen much footage of what the Off Spinner has to offer. When Bashir was interviewed he described the call up to the England squad as a “dream come true” after Brendan McCullum told him the news that he will be making his England debut in the second test.
Shoaib Bashir made his England test debut vs India last week and performed remarkably well as he took 3-138 off his 38 overs in the first innings. 
Former and current Men’s 1st Team Berkshire Coach, Tom Lambert shared his thoughts,
“I don’t think I was the only one to set my alarm for 4am to watch the second test in India! To have a lad who has represented our county make his test debut for England was pretty special and his performance over the 4 days was excellent. To have Rohit Sharma as his first test scalp is pretty impressive and to have the trust of the captain to bowl 28 overs on the opening day of a test match will no doubt set him up nicely for the remainder of the tour. Whilst the result didn’t go the way Shoaib or the on watching England supporter might have liked, Shoaib can be very proud of his first test outing.”
India and England will face off in the third of a five match series on Thursday 15th February.
Everyone at Berkshire Cricket would like to continue showing our support to Bash and wishes him every success for the remainder of the series.