WATCH: How social media video paved way for Shoaib Bashir’s England Test cap

England is riding high on confidence after winning the 1st test of the five-match in India even after conceding a 190-run lead in the first innings. Excitement was buzzing for the series among the fans as they were expecting a high-octane series between two strong test-playing nations.

Fans and cricket pundits were excited about how the ‘Bazball’ would do in Indian conditions against world-class Indian spinners and the first test lived up to fans' expectations where England defeated the strong Indian team in a close match by 28 runs courtesy to Ollie Pope who played a scintillating knock of 196 runs in England’s second innings.

England will look to continue their good form in Test cricket by winning the 2nd test at Vizag and taking a lead of 2-0 in the series. They announced their playing XI for the second test a day before the test match which is a reflection of their sky-high confidence and clarity of thought process in the camp.

Jack Leach who is their prominent left-arm spinner has been ruled out of the 2nd test due to ankle injury and off-spinner Shoaib Bashir is set to make his debut against India. Another change in the playing XI  for England comes in the form of James Anderson who will play in play in place of Mark Wood who looked a bit ineffective on a slow Hyderabad track.

A Social Media video paved the way for Bashir’s Test cap                             

Shoaib Bashir who could not feature in the 1st test due to visa issues will be rearing to make his Test debut on Indian conditions. Bashir first caught the eye of England captain Ben Stokes when he saw a clip of the bowler bowling to Sir Alastair Cook and he immediately got impressed by the young lad.

Stokes told ESPN Cricinfo, “To be perfectly honest, Abu Dhabi was the first real live look I got at Bash. "The first time I saw him was on Twitter. I think the County Championship [account] put a little clip together of him bowling against Sir Alastair."

He further added, “I'm in a WhatsApp group with Keysy (Rob Key) and Baz (Brendon McCullum). I did forward the clip on and said, 'Have a look at this, this could be something we could work with on our India tour' and it just progressed from there. He got selected on the Lions tour and obviously, the coaches on that tour fed everything back to us."