Shoaib Bashir has said that his dismissal of Mohammed Siraj late on the final day of the epic Lord’s Test between India and England ranks right up there with his debut wicket for him. Bashir incredibly bowled despite having a broken finger and managed to get Siraj to play on to his own stumps, despite the latter having middled the ball in his attempt to defend off his body.
“It comes second after my debut wicket. That was incredible. In front of a packed house at Lord’s at the home of cricket, doesn’t get much better than that,” said Bashir on BBC during The Hundred. When asked if he has rewatched that moment a few times, Bashir said: “Plenty, too many times.”
England won the Test by 22 runs but the margin would’ve been much larger had it not been for Ravindra Jadeja powering a sensational revival from India after they were 82/7 chasing a target of 193. Jadeja anchored the tail for just over 50 overs and remained unbeaten on 61 off 181 balls. Siraj and Jadeja had held on in the last-wicket stand for 80 balls and scored 23 runs.
‘Couldn’t really see the bail falling’
Bashir had said earlier that he couldn’t really see the bail falling off. The ball had trickled to the base of the stumps off the face of Siraj’s bat. It was Bashir’s last match of the series with the bowler missing the next 2 Tests due to the injury that he bowled with at Lord’s. He later underwent surgery, with two pins inserted in his finger as he’s still awaiting clearance five weeks on.
He also talked about how he batted through he pain at Lord’s and added 2 runs in 9 balls in a 7-run partnership with Jofra Archer. Bashir had sustained the injury off a delivery from Jasprit Bumrah. “It (the injury) happened, I came off the field and went for a scan,” he recalled. “I knew it was pretty bad at that point, but I had plenty of pain-killers. There was no real conversation about me batting. My first ball from (Jasprit) Bumrah was a bouncer and the next ball a yorker, and it was one of those where the vibrations went right up through your hands. But I was always going to bat, even if it was only to add five-to-ten runs. In the grand scheme of things, they might matter,” he said.
