Former Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble on Saturday heaped praises on England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir after the latter picked up four wickets to hand England an advantage in the IND vs ENG 4th Test. Kumble, who was the first Indian to pick up 500 Test wickets, said Bashir was immaculate with his line and length on Saturday and reaped the rewards of his consistency.
Bashir was the standout bowler for England on Saturday. The young off-spinner was in his elements after England posted a decent total of 353 in the first innings. Ben Stokes’ team needed a solid bowling performance to push India to the backfoot and Bashir came out all guns blazing.
Bashir tore through India’s top and middle order taking some important wickets. Bashir got the better of Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Ravindra Jadeja and India’s highest scorer Yashaswi Jaiswal to put England at an advantage.
Speaking in the post-match show in Jio Cinema, Kumble was very appreciative of the spinner’s effort.
“Bashir has been very impressive. The kind of line he bowled as an off spinner, he kept it slightly outside the right-hander’s eyeline. Very few off spinners bowl from over the stumps to right-handers these days but he has been very consistent with the pace. On this surface he has got the pace right too,” Kumble said.
“Look at that length, it’s fantastic to see almost 90% in that (good length) area. Its the productive area where the odd ball will keep low. Even if its normal bounce, on these kind of surfaces where the batters are expecting the ball to keep low, even normal bounce looks like its bounced a little more because you’re always playing slightly lower,” Kumble added.
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