Impressed with high-quality bowling of Bashir despite bowling only seven overs, says Hussain

NEW DELHI: Former England captain Nasser Hussain said he was impressed with high-quality bowling from off-spinner Shoaib Bashir though he bowled only seven overs on day two of the Lord’s Test against Sri Lanka.

Bashir managed to take the scalp of Prabath Jayasuriya by castling him while giving away 21 runs. “Shoaib Bashir only sent down seven overs on Friday, but I was really impressed with the quality of his bowling. Then, when he got Prabath Jayasuriya on strike, he followed three deliveries at 53-54 miles per hour with one held back and flighted beautifully.”

“Jayasuriya came running down and thought he'd got to the pitch of the ball, only to be half a yard short. It spun and went through the gate. It’s early doors and he needs to work on his control of line to the right handers, but there have been good signs that in Australia next year, Bashir will be hard to get down the pitch to,” wrote Hussain in his column for Daily Mail.

He also described how Bashir troubled Kamindu Mendis, who eventually top-scored for Sri Lanka with 74 off 120 balls. “People will say that he was bowling at Sri Lanka’s tail, but he wasn’t. He was bowling at Kamindu Mendis, a player who grew up playing against lots of spin and someone with multiple hundreds in Test cricket in Bangladesh.”

“Bashir, 20, has been picked to try and replicate Australia’s world class off-spinner Nathan Lyon ahead of next year’s Ashes and this was the most drop I have seen him get on the ball in his short career. It shows he is a quick learner.”

“He was getting that drop because of the amount of over spin he was producing and it meant that even a set batter like Mendis struggled to get down the pitch to him. Mendis was reaching for deliveries early on, and there were a couple of times that he played the forward defence and the ball hit the splice of the bat - which is exactly what Lyon does to opponents," the veteran cricketer added.

Hussain reckons Bashir will get control on his lines and play the role for England similar to what Lyon has done for more than a decade with the Australian Test team. “It’s early doors and he needs to work on his control of line to the right handers, but there have been good signs that in Australia next year, Bashir will be hard to get down the pitch to.”

“England were good as a collective too, looking like a side that has played a lot of cricket at Lord’s. Sri Lanka looked like a side that hadn't played much cricket here with their field placing on day one, but England, and Bashir, showed nous," Hussain added.