Shoaib Bashir overcame the ‘disadvantage’ of state school to become an English star

At Wells Cathedral School Grounds in August 2022, Berkshire U18s took on Somerset U18s, securing an impressive eight wicket victory. The five off 26 set up the win taken by a tall 18-year-old spinner: Shoaib Bashir.

“He was able to create uncertainty through the air with the amount of energy he put on the ball,” recalls Matt Drakeley, head of talent at Somerset. Drakeley was also impressed by Bashir’s speed and bounce. In time, these qualities would convince England to make Bashir one of their shrewdest Test match picks.

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

Lambert was instrumental in endorsing Bashir’s character and his cricket. “He’s a very competitive boy, who was raised very well,” says Lambert. With the ball, Bashir’s qualities were equally evident: “the high release point, the flow he gets on the ball, his control of pace, and his ability to hit the distance accurately all the time”.

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

Asked by Lambert how Bashir was doing for the second XI, Drakeley told him: “It’s been really impressive the last two weeks”. In October 2022, just six weeks after playing for Berkshire U18s, Bashir signed his first professional contract with Somerset.

He was nine years old when Bashir entered the Surrey academy. “He’s obviously getting 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 relied heavily on drift, flight and pace.”

Growing up in Woking, Bashir never played a single school game 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 last year’s County Championship, 88 per cent of Surrey’s qualified English players attended independent schools, recent research by Stephen Hope has found.

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“You don’t have an advantage if you’re in a state school,” says Townsend. “You haven’t got the support network outside of the Surrey corridor. So it can be more tricky. People aren’t talking about you as much: ‘Oh, did you see him and so, he did well against Wellington’.”

Although Bashir was part of the Surrey pathway, players had to be nominated for assessment by a local club, school or other cricketing organisation. The system has since been replaced by blind video evaluation: a change designed to make the process more rewarding, although there are fears that some schools are using professional videographers to maximize their chances of identifying their players.

At Woking College, in his sixth year, Bashir enjoyed 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 modules where students had to come up with a business pitch, Bashir came up with the idea of ​​a cricket training academy; he presented the idea “in true Dragons’ Den style”. Bashir excelled in his BTEC award in business.

Apart from school, Bashir’s way into the game was supported by two essential plans for young players. First, family: as a boy, Bashir played tirelessly with his uncle and older brother at the local public nets. Second, a local club. Always a spinner, he rose through the youth sections of Guildford Cricket Club before making his first team at the age of 15. Bashir was known for his competitiveness, his friendliness, his love of the game and his glorious pastimes.

“The thing that stood out to me the most was his attitude,” recalls Olly Birts, Bashir Guildford’s first-team captain. “He very quickly became someone you could throw the ball to at any point and have full faith that you would get him.

“He was always a dream for the captain, he always wanted the ball, he wouldn’t be afraid of any challenge and he would deliver 99 per cent of the time. He was a very quick learner”. With Guildford’s wickets often flat and dry, Bashir opened the bowling on many occasions.

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

Perhaps most impressive was Bashir’s enthusiasm for self-improvement. “At the end of every game he wanted feedback from a coach, what needed to be amended, what could be improved. We worked hard on his mental approach to bowling, not just releasing the ball but what the purpose of each delivery was. He really liked that philosophy because he saw every ball as an opportunity to take a wicket.”

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

So did Bashir. Lambert, Berkshire’s head coach, had previously seen the Bashir bowl for teams under Surrey’s age. When he learned of Bashir’s release, he reached out to him.

During the winter of 2021-22, Bashir traveled more than an hour twice a week to train the Berkshire nets. “He was brilliant, full of energy – an incredible competitor, just wanted to train all the time,” recalls Lambert. “​​​​​​He got into our system very quickly and the boys did very well. He’s the salt of the earth, he’s a nice guy.” Lambert is used to dealing with parents “who are sometimes a bit brutal”; Bashir said “but let him get on with it”.

In the summer of 2022, while playing for Guildford, Bashir played around 40 days of cricket for Berkshire, playing for the U18s and the second team. He also had a brief spell at Middlesex U18s, who chose not to sign him.

Shortly before Berkshire’s under-18s played in the semi-final of the National County T20 Cup, the national counties competition, which is below first-class level, Bashir was offered a trial in Somerset. They were the third county to see him; perhaps, his last chance to create a professional career.

Aware that Bashir had a dislocated finger, Lambert told Bashir that he understood if he wanted to rest. Bashir said: “No, it’s finals day, I’m playing for Berkshire. We’ll be worried about Somerset when it comes around.” To Lambert, “it shows how humble he is – he never looked down his nose at us.” Bashir took four wickets in the semi-final and then, between his Test matches in Somerset, another four as Berkshire won the final.

“It had a shop window,” says Lambert. “He wanted to be able to play cricket 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 many other things.”

And so Bashir’s frustration at being let go by his home county was the catalyst for his rise. “If Surrey had kept him involved, I don’t think he would have played for England,” says Townsend. “He probably wouldn’t have had the exposure.

“The system didn’t help him. But it helped him – because he has found a way, bouncing around the national counties to get the second team game to get a platform in the end.”

Within 18 months, Bashir’s story connects the England Test team with the community club and the county’s national scene; he is still active on both the Guildford and Berkshire WhatsApp groups. It is a reminder of an eternal truth: how the national side of England is fed by the pyramid beneath it.

But it is also a very modern story. Ben Stokes was first alerted to Bashir’s prowess on social media; watching him bowl 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 embraced Bashir’s high release point, flow and control, along with his ability to change his pace without any discernible change in his action. All of this was more than Bashir’s 10 championships at 67 last summer.

Clearly these statistics lacked testability. But Bashir’s raw qualities, and the character he created for Guildford, Berkshire and Somerset there, gave reason to believe otherwise.