Hyderabad, Jan 24 (PTI) England captain Ben Stokes is “devastated” that rookie off-spinner Shoaib Bashir’s arrival in India for the five-Test series has been delayed due to lingering visa issues that forced him to return home from the team’s Abu Dhabi training base.
The 20-year-old lanky off-spinner, who plays for Somerset in the English county, was with the squad in Abu Dhabi but couldn’t proceed to India as he is yet to be granted visa. His family is of Pakistani heritage.
Bashir, who is a shock inclusion in the squad with a mediocre 10 wickets from just six first-class games, was never in contention for a place in the squad for the opening Test starting here on Thursday.
“Yeah, so he’s back in London now. So, hopefully, we’re going to see him back in India over the weekend. The feelings we have towards it (the visa episode) hasn’t changed. It’s obviously a frustrating situation,” Stokes said in the pre-match press conference here on Wednesday.
“You know, we had announced our squad mid-December. Now, it’s January 24 and we still don’t have a reason for Shoaib’s absence here…hopefully, we can get over and he can also just concentrate on the rest of his tour,” he added.
Earlier, in an interaction with the British media on Tuesday, Stokes had stated that he felt “devastated” for the youngster.
“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,” he had said.
India captain Rohit Sharma too commented on the matter in his pre-match press conference here and hoped that Bashir would be seen in action soon.
“I feel for him. He is coming, I think, for the first time. Unfortunately I don’t sit in visa office to make the decision. Hopefully he will make it here soon,” Rohit said.
Australian opener Usman Khawaja also faced a similar situation when he arrived late for the Test series in India last year. Players of Pakistani heritage, who have a Pakistani visa, have to apply at the Indian High Commission of their respective countries to be able to travel to India.
While Bashir is expected to get the stamp of approval from Indian High Commission in London, the turn of events left Stokes a tad irked.
“He’s not the first cricketer to go through this. I have played with a lot of people who have had the same issues,” Stokes said.
Another player of Pakistani origin, Saqib Mahmood, couldn’t travel to India in 2019 for an ‘A’ series.
England and Wales Cricket Board’s MD (Operations) Stuart Hooper was in the UAE to speed up the procedure but it didn’t get the desired result.
“I find it frustrating that we have picked a player and he’s not with us because of visa issues. It’s a frustrating situation to be in but a lot of people have been trying to get it through.”
Source: PTI News
