Finally, on Wednesday, England spinner of Pakistani origin, Shoaib Bashir was granted a visa to travel to India, for the upcoming Test series, after a fair share of controversy. After being denied the visa at first, the youngster was asked to fly back home, after the ECB had to step in.
This had left England skipper Ben Stokes miffed. But as it turns out, Bashir will be in India, for the second Test. Having said that, a spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, that the government expected British citizens to be treated fairly by India’s visa processes.
“I can’t speak to the specifics of this case. But more broadly we have previously raised issues of this kind with the High Commission. We have been clear that we expect India to treat British citizens fairly at all times in its visa processes. We have previously raised the issues British citizens with Pakistani heritage have experienced. We’ve raised the issues about their experience of applying for visas with the Indian High Commissioner in London,” the spokesperson said, as quoted by the BBC.
England playing XI for Hyderabad Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, Jack Leach.
