When England put New Zealand into bat on a green-top at the Hagley Oval, few would have predicted that Shoaib Bashir would have much of a role to play on the first day of the series. In fact, many onlookers questioned whether he should be in the team at all, given the hosts had decided a frontline spinner was requisite to their own requirements.

At stumps, having bowled 20 overs and taken 4-69, a beaming Bashir was as surprised as anyone, “I really enjoyed it, I wasn’t expecting to bowl 20 odd overs today, it was a different challenge presented, obviously it was day one and the wicket was a bit green so I wasn’t really expecting to bowl 20 odd overs but I really, really enjoyed.”

“I knew I had a job to do, when you’re expected to do a job, you want to fulfil it to the best of your abilities. It was tough with the wind but I had to find a way to work through that.”

Finding a way was exactly what England needed, there were times on this opening day when the tourists were on the ropes, they looked rusty and rhythmless, and the imperious Kane Williamson was threatening to run them ragged.

When asked about the challenge of bowling to someone like Williamson, Bashir’s response was refreshingly honest, “For me bowling at someone like him, I was just in awe of watching Kane Williamson bat to be honest. I was just trying to focus on deceiving him outside off, trying to play with both the outside edge and inside edge. I got passed his outside edge a few times but he’s a really, really quality player.”

It wasn’t just the brilliance of Williamson that Bashir was battling against in the afternoon session, the stiff breeze he was running into had developed into a gale, “I think bowling against the wind was tough, really tough, I felt like the wind took away my line from me a little bit, so I knew I had to work stronger in my bowling action to almost compensate for that wind.”

Williamson built half-century stands with three different partners and when New Zealand reached 199-3, an imposing first-innings total appeared well within the hosts reach. But a gutsy England hung in the contest and when Mitchell top edged Carse to Brook at third-man to depart for 19 and Williamson slapped Atkinson to Crawley in the gully seven short of a century, the score was suddenly, almost surreally 227-5. With the door unexpectedly ajar, Bashir duly burst it wide open, taking the wickets of Blundell, Smith and Henry in the final session.

“Stokesy and Baz back me 100%, I bowled plenty of bad balls out there and was still kept on, and that just shows how much faith they have in me, 100% it brings the best out of me and I really enjoy playing under them.

“All I was thinking about was trying to take a wicket, trying to create an opportunity and as I said, I bowled plenty of bad balls out there, and all I was thinking about was trying to take wickets and thankfully that happened.”

When asked if Stokes says anything to him when he bowls a bad ball. Bashir chuckles, “Not really, he just looks at me and smiles, even that just gives me so much belief that I know that I can bowl my best ball whenever.”

With the new-ball taken just before the close and New Zealand reaching 319-8, England will hope their seamers can wrap up proceedings quickly tomorrow morning, but if they don’t, you know Stokes won’t hesitate to call on his boy to finish the job.

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