Geoffrey Boycott, the former England opener, has advised young off-spinner Shoaib Bashir to learn from Nathan Lyon’s bowling videos, as he believes the Australia veteran is the most superior off-spinner in the cricketing world.
In seven Tests since his debut on this year’s tour of India, Bashir has picked 29 wickets, but went wicketless in second innings of series opener against Sri Lanka at Manchester, as the batters used their feet to unsettle his lines and lengths.
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“Shoaib Bashir has talent and can get better. He is tall with a fluid high action that will create occasional bounce on hard pitches together with a natural loop. My impression is he is not clear on what line he should be bowling so he tries all sorts of deliveries searching for a wicket.
“At the moment the best off-spinner in world cricket by a long way is Nathan Lyon, with 530 wickets at 30 runs each. My advice would be go and look at film of Lyon bowling. He gets close to the stumps so he can find a touch of drift away from the batsman with his action but he aims to pitch outside off stump to spin back and hit the stumps.
“His straight-on ball brings slip in play and he has a short square leg for the bat/pad nick. That way he can beat right-handers inside and outside of the bat. All great bowlers have to match line with length. Line is good, but if too short or too full then it is hittable. Great length but wrong line, such as being too straight, gives easy runs on the leg side,” wrote Boycott in his column for The Telegraph.
He also thinks Bashir must develop a stock ball to use in Test cricket to keep the batters quiet. “I think Shoaib has to learn that he can’t always go searching for wickets, admirable as that is, because it can become expensive.
“Sometimes when two opposition batsmen get set on a flat batting pitch the seamers are given the best end and the spinner the worst end. They are asked to bowl uphill or against the wind to do a holding job, keeping the batsmen quiet and runs to a minimum. That is why he needs a good stock ball.”
England now have a 1-0 lead in the three-match series against Sri Lanka and will play the second Test at Lord’s on August 29, followed by the series-ending game at The Oval on September 6.
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