Shoaib Bashir overcame state school ‘disadvantage’ to become England star

At Wells Cathedral School Ground in August 2022, Berkshire U18s faced Somerset U18s, securing a surprise eight-wicket win. The win was set up by the five for 26 taken by a tall 18-year-old off-spinner: Shoaib Bashir.

“He was able to create indecision through the air with how much energy he put on the ball,” recalls Matt Drakeley, head of talent pathway at Somerset. Drakeley was also impressed with Bashir’s pace and bounce. In time, these traits would persuade England to make Bashir one of their most audacious Test match selections.

Two days after Berkshire’s win, Drakeley sent a WhatsApp message to Tom Lambert, the Berkshire head coach. Drakeley was interested in giving Bashir opportunities in Somerset’s second XI.

Lambert was emphatic in endorsing both Bashir’s character and his cricket. “He’s an incredibly competitive, brilliantly brought up lad,” Lambert says. With the ball, Bashir’s qualities were equally clear: “the high release point, the drift he gets on the ball, his control of pace, and his ability to hit length accurately all the time”.

Bashir took nine wickets in two Somerset second XI games at the end of 2022. “We’ve got to sign this kid,” Steven Davies, the former England wicketkeeper, told Andy Hurry, Somerset’s director of cricket. “He’s doing some things with the ball that are well beyond his maturity in years.”

When Lambert inquired about how Bashir was doing for the second XI, Drakeley told him: “He’s been very impressive the past two weeks”. In October 2022, just six weeks after playing for Berkshire U18s, Bashir signed his first professional contract with Somerset.

His first county involvement came aged nine when Bashir joined Surrey’s academy. “He’s obviously got taller, but the way he bowls hasn’t changed much,” recalls Gareth Townsend, Surrey’s former academy director. “He was never a big spinner of the ball – he was very much relying on drift, flight and his pace.”

Growing up in Woking, Bashir did not play a single school match as Fullbrook School, his secondary school, did not play the game at all. Unusually among Surrey’s leading young players, Bashir’s schooling was not private. In the County Championship last year, 88 per cent of Surrey’s England-qualified players attended independent schools, recent research by Stephen Hope found.

“You’re not at an advantage if you’re at a state school,” Townsend says. “You haven’t quite got the network of support outside of the Surrey pathway. So it can be more tricky. People aren’t talking about you so much: ‘Oh, have you seen so and so, he bowled well against Wellington’.”

While Bashir was part of Surrey’s pathway, players had to be nominated for an assessment by a local club, school or other cricketing organisation. The system has since been replaced by a blind video assessment: a change designed to make the process more meritocratic, although there are fears that some schools are using professional videographers to maximise their players’ prospects of being identified.

At Woking College, his sixth form, Bashir relished using the winter nets to train, and brought his passion into the classroom.

“He would always discuss cricket and bring it into his work,” recalls Selina Mahmood, Bashir’s business teacher. During a module in which students were required to devise a business pitch, Bashir’s idea was for a cricket coaching academy; he presented the idea “in true Dragons’ Den style”. Bashir got a distinction star in his double award BTEC in business.

Rather than school, Bashir’s route into the game was underpinned by two planks essential to young players. First, family: as a boy, Bashir played incessantly with his uncle and older brother at the local public nets. Second, a local club. Always an off-spinner, he rose through Guildford Cricket Club’s youth sections before making his first-team debut aged 15. Bashir was renowned for his competitiveness, friendliness, love of the game and vociferous appeals.

“The big thing that sticks out for me is his mentality,” recalls Olly Birts, Bashir’s Guildford first-team captain. “He very quickly became someone who you’d throw the ball to at any point and have full faith that he would deliver.

“He was always a dream to captain, always wanted the ball, would never be scared of any challenge and would deliver 99 per cent of the time. He was a very quick learner”. With Guildford’s wickets often flat and dry, Bashir often opened the bowling.

“He was a very humble, shy and reserved character off the field but a fierce competitor on it,” recalls Neil Garrett, Bashir’s former coach at Guildford. “His work ethic, availability and dedication to practice was always outstanding.”

Most striking, perhaps, was Bashir’s zeal for self-improvement. “At the end of every game he wanted coach feedback, what needed tweaking, what could be improved. We worked very hard on his mental approach to bowling, not just releasing the ball but what was the purpose of each delivery. He loved that philosophy as he saw a chance to take a wicket every ball.”

Around the age of 16 and 17, Bashir shot up to 6ft 4in. “The growth spurt set him back a bit,” Birts believes. In late 2021, around his 18th birthday, Bashir was released by Surrey; he made plans to study accounting and finance at university. Townsend, who had left Surrey a few months earlier, told Bashir: “Ask elsewhere whether you can get some cricket, whether you can get people to look at you.”

So Bashir did. Lambert, Berkshire’s head coach, had previously seen Bashir bowl for Surrey’s underage sides. When he learnt of Bashir’s release, he reached out to him.

Over the 2021-22 winter, Bashir travelled over an hour twice a week to train at Berkshire’s nets. “He was brilliant, full of energy – an unbelievable competitor, just wanted to train all the time,” Lambert recalls. “He very, very quickly got integrated into our system and got on extremely well with the boys. He’s salt of the earth, he’s such a nice guy.” Lambert is used to dealing with parents “who can be a bit pushy at times”; Bashir’s “just let him get on with it”.

In the summer of 2022, alongside playing for Guildford, Bashir played about 40 days of cricket for Berkshire, playing for the U18s and the second team. He also had a brief spell at Middlesex U18s, who opted against signing him.

Shortly before Berkshire U18s played in the semi-finals of the National County T20 Cup, the competition for the national counties, who exist below first-class level, Bashir was offered a trial at Somerset. They were the third county to see him; potentially, his final chance to forge a professional career.

Knowing that Bashir had a dislocated finger, Lambert told Bashir he understood if he wanted to rest. Bashir said: “No it’s a finals day, I’m playing for Berkshire. We’ll worry about Somerset when it comes around.” To Lambert, “it shows how humble he is – he didn’t ever look down his nose at us.” Bashir took four wickets in the semi-final and then, in between his Somerset trial matches, another four as Berkshire won the final.

“He wanted a shop window,” Lambert reflects. “He wanted a volume of cricket to be able to play and we were able to offer him that. He was able to bowl 20, 30 overs a day. What national counties can give you is a huge volume of overs.”

And so the frustration of Bashir being released by his home county was the catalyst for his astounding rise. “If Surrey had kept him involved, I don’t think he would be playing for England,” says Townsend. “He probably wouldn’t have had the exposure.

“The system hasn’t helped him. But it has helped him – because he’s found a way through, bouncing around the national counties scene to get a second team game to finally be given a platform.”

Within the space of 18 months, Bashir’s story links the England Test team to both the grass-roots club and also the national county scene; he remains active on both Guildford and Berkshire WhatsApp groups. It is a reminder of an eternal truth: how the English national side is sustained by the pyramid underneath it.

Yet it is also a very modern tale. Ben Stokes was first alerted to Bashir’s talents on social media; seeing a clip of him bowling to Sir Alastair Cook (see below), the captain shared it with Rob Key and Brendon McCullum, England’s managing director and head coach.

Just like Lambert at Berkshire, England were taken by Bashir’s high release point, drift and control, combined with his ability to vary his pace without any discernible change in his action. All of this counted for more than Bashir’s 10 Championship wickets at 67 last summer.

These statistics did not obviously translate into a player of Test prowess. But Bashir’s raw attributes, and the character that he forged for Guildford, Berkshire and then Somerset, gave reason to believe otherwise.