England’s uncapped spinner Shoaib Bashir on Wednesday (January 24) received his visa to travel to India for the five-match Test series.
Amid his India visa delay, Bashir, a British citizen of Pakistani origin, had flown back to the UK from Dubai. As a result, he was ruled out of the opening Test, due to start on January 25 in Hyderabad.
“Shoaib Bashir has now received his visa, and is due to travel to join up with the team in India this weekend. We're glad the situation has now been resolved,” England Cricket confirmed with a post on X.
Speaking ahead of the series opener, England skipper Ben Stokes said he is ‘frustrated’ and ‘devastated’ for Bashir, insisting that they had announced their squad for the India series in mid-December.
“Especially as captain I find it particularly frustrating. We announced that squad in mid-December, and now Bash finds himself without a visa to get here. I am more frustrated for him. I didn't want this type of situation to be his first experience of what it's like to be in the England Test team. I feel for him,” Stokes stated.
He pointed out that Bashir is not the first cricketer to go through this, calling the whole situation unfortunate. Notably, Australian opener Usman Khawaja also faced similar issues and arrived late for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India last year.
“But he's not the first cricketer to go through this, I have played with a lot of people who have had the same issues. I find it frustrating that we have picked a player and he's not with us because of visa issues. Especially for a young lad, I'm devastated for him. It's a frustrating situation to be in, but a lot of people have been trying to get it through. It's unfortunate and I'm very frustrated for him,” Stokes added.
The England skipper also confirmed that the visa delay has ruled Bashir out of the first Test. The 20-year-old spinner impressed one and all with his brilliant showing during the England Lions’ training camp in November and would have been in the selection reckoning for the opening Test considering the spin-friendly tracks in India.
“Him not being able to be here rules him out. We didn't come here with preconceived ideas about what we will do with the first team. In India you do like to have a good look at the pitch to see how it might play. With Bash unfortunately not able to be here, it rules him out of this game,” said Stokes.
