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'He’s The New Ashwin..,' Vaughan Compares Shoaib Bashir With Indian Star Spinner

Shoaib Bashir celebrating his maiden Test fifer at Ranchi (BCCI)Shoaib Bashir celebrating his maiden Test fifer at Ranchi (BCCI)

Young off-spinner Shoaib Bashir offered a glimmer of promise during England’s crushing five-wicket defeat to India at Ranchi in late-February, thus providing a silver lining in the midst of the visitor’s repeated adversities off late. 

The 20-year-old, playing only the second Test of his career, picked up eight Indian wickets in the match, including five in the first innings to secure a handy halfway advantage for his country.

While England’s Ranchi humiliation triggered yet another series defeat for them in India, former skipper Michael Vaughan believes Bashir’s emergence as a potential superstar calls for a celebration itself for English cricket.



Vaughan compares young Bashir with Ashwin

According to the former England captain, the emergence of Shoaib Bashir as “another world-class superstar” calls for enough reasons for his country to celebrate. He even compared the young English tweaker to India’s decade-long enigma machine Ravichandran Ashwin. 

While speaking on a YouTube channel, Michael Vaughan said:

“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, he got eight wickets, he’s the new Ravi Ashwin, and we’ve unearthed him. So, we’re celebrating a new superstar in English cricket.”

Shoaib Bashir made his Test debut earlier in the series against India at Vizag. The youngster celebrated the occasion with three wickets in his maiden innings, before he received a return call-up for the fourth match of the series at Ranchi.

Ravichandran Ashwin, meanwhile, recently scaled a significant Test milestone of 500 wickets for India. The legendary off-spinner attained the feat during India’s 434-run win against the tourists at Rajkot in mid-February.

Both Ashwin and Bashir will now be expected to turn up for their respective nations in the fifth and final Test of the series at Dharamshala’s HPCA Stadium.