Lord’s has not been kind to fingers.
Steve Smith mangled his pinky in the World Test Championship final, then a rather fortuitous blow to India’s Rishabh Pant meant he could bat and not keep wicket in the third Test against England last week.
Shoaib Bashir came off worse than Smith and Pant. Ravindra Jadeja’s belt back at the England off-spinner resulted in surgery to Bashir’s left little finger and an absence from the fourth Test at Old Trafford, starting on Wednesday, and the finale at The Oval next week.
One wonders about the butterfly effect caused by the swish of Jadeja’s blade. England were too deep into the Bashir project to change course either in this series or the Ashes. Now they have been given an unexpected opportunity to see what they could have won.
It is, if you will pardon the pun, a sliding Daws moment.
Liam Dawson, in the England Test team for the first time in eight years, is the polar opposite of Bashir.
Bashir was picked after Ben Stokes saw a clip of him on social media, Dawson has been the unpicked social media darling. Dawson could not get in despite a proven first-class record, Bashir was picked despite not having one.
Bashir is tall, Dawson isn’t. Bashir is 21, Dawson 35. Bashir is right-arm, Dawson left. Without being unkind, Bashir is a one-dimensional cricketer, Dawson is an all-rounder. The Hampshire man has more first-class runs than every player in the India squad.
Bashir has been an experiment in whether a Test cricketer can be grown on the international stage. Of his 34 first-class matches, 19 have been Tests.
He has something. The Somerset bowler is the youngest England man to 50 Test wickets. Of all England spinners to have at least 50 wickets since World War Two, his strike-rate is bettered only by Graeme Swann.
It has often been a step forward, then a step back. Bashir had a difficult winter, so made some tweaks. He got closer to the stumps in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in May and his line improved. Nine wickets in the match followed.
In the series against India, the master players of spin, he has gone back wider of the crease and the line has remained consistent. In three Tests where spinners have struggled to make an impact, Bashir’s 10 wickets is the most of the tweakers on either side. Jadeja, a much more accomplished bowler, only has three.