HYDERABAD: Spinner Shoaib Bashir has been ruled out of England’s opening Test against India following a visa delay, now resolved, an episode that has marred the build-up to the five-match series between the sides beginning in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Bashir, who is of Pakistani heritage, returned to London from Abu Dhabi, where England trained before arriving in India, and will now join the squad this weekend after his visa issue was resolved on Wednesday.

“Shoaib Bashir has now received his visa, and is due to travel to join up with the team in India this weekend,” England’s cricket board (ECB) said on social media platform X.

“We’re glad the situation has now been resolved.”

Earlier, England captain Ben Stokes did not hide his disappointment in his pre-match press conference but said they never seriously considered boycotting the match over the treatment meted out to the Somerset spinner.

“I’m pretty devastated that Bash has had to go through this,” Stokes said. “As a leader, as a captain, when one of your team mates is affected by something like that you do get a bit emotional.

“I know he’s back in London and a lot of people are jumping through hoops to try and get this through quicker.

“Hopefully we’re going to see him here over the weekend.”

Several fans took to social media to protest the treatment meted out to Bashir and India captain Rohit Sharma was also sympathetic towards the uncapped 20-year-old.

“I feel for him, honestly,” Sharma said. “Unfortunately I don’t sit in the visa office to give you more details on that but hopefully he can make it quickly, enjoy our country and plays some cricket as well.

“It’s not easy for anyone, it could be one of our guys wanting to come to England and being denied.”

Lancashire’s Tom Hartley is set to make his Test debut in Hyderabad after Stokes announced a spin-heavy attack also including fellow left-armer Jack Leach and teenage leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed with Joe Root as the fourth option.

James Anderson has been left out with Mark Wood as the only frontline fast bowler for what England expect to be a spin-dominated contest.

Ben Foakes returned as wicket-keeper, freeing Jonny Bairstow to play as a specialist batter at number five.

India have not lost a Test series at home since 2012-13 but Sharma said he did not want his team-mates to start believing they are unbeatable in their own conditions.

Sharma’s team would begin as favourites in the series but the home captain looked determined to prevent any complacency from creeping into their approach.

“No, no, not at all. At the end of the day, it’s sport,” Sharma said. “By no means whatever records we have in the past decade or so gives us the guarantee that we are going to win the series.

“I won’t say we are not beatable, we are. We want to think that if we don’t step up or don’t show up well, we are going to find ourselves in trouble. We don’t want to be doing that.”

Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja would shoulder India’s spin load but Sharma did not reveal who between Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav would be their third spinner.

The India captain also confirmed KL Rahul would not be deployed behind the stumps.

ENGLAND XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (captain), Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, Jack Leach.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2024