Stokes reveals England briefly considered refusing to travel to India without Bashir
Vithushan Ehantharajah
Stokes ‘devastated’ by Bashir’s visa delay
“When one of your team-mates is affected by something like that, you obviously do get a bit emotional for them”
Shoaib Bashir has received his India visa and will travel out to join England’s Test squad in Hyderabad over the weekend, following a protracted saga in which the uncapped spinner had been required to return to the UK from the UAE to finalise the process, while the rest of his team-mates travelled to India ahead of Thursday’s first Test.
Bashir, who was born and raised in Surrey, had been facing delays due to his Pakistani heritage, something with which England players with similar backgrounds have contended in the past. In 2019, Saqib Mahmood was ruled out of an England Lions tour to India, while Moeen Ali arrived late at the 2022 IPL season. Usman Khawaja, whose parents were born in Islamabad,…