Bashir has shown the world what he can do: Stokes

England’s Test captain Ben Stokes heaped heavy praise on Shoaib Bashir after the young off-spinner scalped a five-wicket haul in the final innings of the second Test against the West Indies to propel his team to a 241-run win. In the process, the 20-year-old also became the youngest England bowler to take a five-wicket haul in a home Test.

Chasing 385, the West Indies were 61 for no loss at one stage but that’s when all hell broke loose. The visitors lost all their 10 wickets in the space of 82 runs and were eventually bundled out for 143 runs in 36.1 overs. Bashir finished with figures of 5/41 in 11.1 overs as England took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

"He has got so much talent and he's got an unbelievable desire to get better. His intent is to always take wickets and never just to hold an end up. It's really good for a young guy to put in a performance that wins England a Test. He was pretty emotional at the end. It's a pretty cool day for him. He has shown the world what he can do,” said Stokes.

Earlier this year, Stokes saw videos of Bashir bowling to Alastair Cook on X (formerly Twitter) and decided to pick him for the tour of India. The tall offspinner featured in three Tests and claimed 17 wickets at an average of 33.35.

"The decisions we make are all based around not only how far we think talent can take a player, but if we think they're good enough for international cricket straight away.  Bash showed what he could do in India with conditions in his favour, but the pitch this week didn't really offer much for spin and he has taken seven wickets in the match,” said Stokes.

“The ability he had to be able to change his pace, change his line, and manipulate how he wanted the ball to react out of the surface was top-class. I don't want to sound like it's an 'I told you so' kind of thing, but it sort of is."

Apart from Bashir, Mark Wood also had a fantastic match. The tearaway quick bowled with great pace and constantly kept the West Indies batters on the back foot. “On another day, Woody could have got Man of the Match, the way that he bowled was just phenomenal.

"He's not got the rewards this game, but someone will pay eventually this summer. In batting we talk a lot about partnerships, and it's the same thing with bowling. You look at the amount of wickets at the other end when Woody was bowling his spells, that's the effect that a bowler like Woody can have.

"He's got the heart of a lion, he'll run in ball after ball after ball for us. And his pace is just phenomenal but it's the skill that he's got as well, to be able to consistently hit a certain area, with batters always thinking 'when is it coming at my head?"

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