{"id":318785,"date":"2025-12-16T09:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T09:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/318785\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T09:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T09:41:07","slug":"shoaib-bashir-england-are-pragmatic-to-leave-out-spinner-for-third-ashes-test-with-more-going-on-behind-the-scenes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/318785\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoaib Bashir: England are ‘pragmatic’ to leave out spinner for third Ashes Test with ‘more going on behind the scenes’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former England seamer Steven Finn reckons spin will “play a big part” in the third Ashes Test but can still understand why Shoaib Bashir has been left out.<\/p>\n

England have decided to stick with spin-bowling all-rounder Will Jacks<\/a> for Adelaide even though they have previously backed Bashir as their frontline spinner.<\/p>\n

England skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum felt Bashir had the attributes to succeed in Australia, mainly a high release point and the ability to extract bounce from the surface.<\/p>\n

However, Finn said the decision to pick Jacks, who played his first Test in three years in Brisbane, was a rational one despite investing time into Bashir.<\/p>\n

“You have to be pragmatic in the situation. I don’t think you can preempt, especially on a tour like this, someone playing months or years out,” Finn told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Ashes third Test preview show.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I think it was anticipated Jacks would get the nod especially given his batting prowess. The management have to pick the XI they think can deliver.”<\/p>\n

Bashir has taken 68 wickets in 19 Tests for England but only returned from a finger injury at the start of the tour and bowled expensively in matches outside the Tests.<\/p>\n

Finn also said there was a “human element” to not selecting Bashir and suggested there was “probably more going on behind the scenes”.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be 37c and a good pitch. It wouldn’t be a surprised if spin played a big part,” added Finn, who played 36 Tests and 69 one-day internationals.<\/p>\n

“But if you throw someone into this environment and they are not quite ready we have seen how harsh it can be.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England seamer Steven Finn reckons spin will “play a big part” in the third Ashes Test but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-318785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}