England v New Zealand Test Series 2026

[Arthur Crabtree]

I'm wondering if he was limited in some way by injury (the broken hand) but they thought he might pull through. Like Swann on his last Ashes tour. But then decided he wasn't going to be good enough given the limitation. And now he's fit again.

It's only a guess, but it might explain why he's back after being considered not good enough over the winter.

[sussexpob]

Another additional point about Bashir's total no show in Australia is, his original selection was somewhat justified on his style being more favourable to Australian pitches than other options, as a very tall, very high actioned type bowler who does not spin or flight the ball a lot. I can't remember who said it, but a comparison to Kumble's 2003-04 performance in Australia was made.

I think to be successful in England, you have to be able to turn the ball a bit more on pitches that are not as responsive and don't bounce a lot in comparison to other countries, especially to be a factor in first innings. Bashir only really turns the ball enough to be a constant threat on screaming bunsens, without a very helpful pitch its mostly very gun barrel straight.

And even on helpful pitches where he spins it, its all relative. People for instance said he was decent away in India 23/24, and average of 34 isn't especially poor... but these were pitches where Ashwin took 26 wickets in 140 overs, Kuldeep took 20 wickets at sub 20 averages, and India as spin unit crushed England. And then in Multan, where he had one of his better games in an England shirt, his 5/145 was matched by Sajid Khan first taking a 7-for, and then a near 40 year old guy with barely a test cap taking 8-40.

And I think that is the issue, isn't it? In the most perfect spinning conditions, Bashir elevates from bad to passably good, where as the spinners at the other end are putting up all time numbers. Bashir took 5/145, Noman Ali put up his countries 3rd best test performance in history, the best FC figures at the venue, etc etc.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Especially with the rain and cloud cover, maybe they'll rethink selection.

Might have been useful to have retained Rehan or Rew in the squad.

[sussexpob]

It's only a guess, but it might explain why he's back after being considered not good enough over the winter.

As stated above, even in the county game multiple counties have reached the same point of finding it impossible to play him because his returns are consistently rubbish, its the not the first time its happened (its eventually happened at every team he's played for). I think this assessment is generous - he played on the tour, he got through overs, and he was a selected member of the squad. The alternative "unfit" narrative feels like a typical ECB client journalism narrative to explain why the management ended up selecting a player even they had no confidence in. Lads, it wasn't a mistake, he just wasn't fit!

Being brutally cynical, I think he is only in the team now because the management team have the IQ of a dog turd, and think it saves face to continually selected him rather than have to admit the whole foolhardy selecting of players based on a Instagram short was a crazy, dumb idea in the first place. Rather than admit they are wrong, we will labour under the consistent misapprehension that they seen something special in him.

That something special was literally, and I mean literally, a 60 second video of one over he bowled. That is a fact.

[sussexpob]

I guess we have all been through this many times. I can already feel Alfie will be reading this rant today shaking his head in disapproval, but I just don't get it at all. I really, 100% honestly can't fathom it. I am not trying to wind people up or just defend previous points, it baffling to me.

Can you imagine the England football coach picking an 18 year old player who has barely played a minute in his life at his PL team, based on the video of a stepover he did in the 15th minute of a game where he missed 3 open goals and cost his side the match on a defensive blunder? You then take him to start at a world cup where he plays poorly, the team are hopelessly crushed in two group games and slide out... you think he keeps his job, or do you think that decision alone would be curtains?

Well, just imagine the coach keeps his job. He continues to pick this player citing the magical stepover, meanwhile this player has dropped out the top 4 side, been loaned to Brighton and flopped, been loaned to West Ham flopped, been loaned to Wolves and flopped. And then out of contract, ends at a lower mid-table Championship side like Preston NE where given a chance to prove himself in a lower level, ends as the worst statistical player in his position in the division.

Just imagine Tuchel selecting a player like that for the WC. Because picking Bashir is quite literally exactly like that.

Of course, Tuchel wouldnt do that... but his brain isnt 99,99% dog turd, so ....

[Arthur Crabtree]

Though Bashir has done a bit more than merely flop out of a WC. He did actually have a slightly below average England career going into last winter and if someone with credibility felt he had potential, he might seem like a player at least worth keeping in the get-togethers and Lions setup.

Except the winter told us these people lost faith in him with a rapidity and conviction that said he was finished. And yet, just as suddenly, he's back. So that's the WC bit. But there was a first act as well.

[sussexpob]

Though Bashir has done a bit more than merely flop out of a WC. He did actually have a slightly below average England career going into last winter

Out of all 24 players to take 20 wickets vs WTC ranked opponents (Ie no Ireland/AFG,etc) in the last 3 years with spin bowling, Bashir is by a considerable margin of 4 runs per wicket the worst specialist bowler for wicket average, and only saved from overall bottom by the fact he is so rubbish, Joe Root now has to bowl a lot of overs to cover for him. The distance between Bashir to the rest increases when removing lower ranked sides like West Indies with the worst batting line ups.

In terms of English history, 56 spinners have taken 20 wickets for England. Bashir ranks 45 overall, but isolated to WTC teams he barely makes the top 50... behind him is Hick, Root, Compton, Barrington, Hearne, Salisbury and Pocock. 5 batsman, 2 actual bowlers. And even then, Pocock's 44 average to Bashir's 42.5 when considering contemporary value makes Bashir's record far worst in comparison (+/- 7 runs in Pocock's favour). So basically that leaves Ian Salisbury.

Ranked on all 98 spin bowlers in history to have taken 68 wickets like Bashir, he is 90/98 all time in wicket average when factored to WTC opposition. 4 players below him have over 5 test 100s and are either full on batsman/batting all rounders. Dipak Patel was rubbish but batted in NZs middle order. Nicky Boje was clearly picked because he could also bat a bit, as would Dharamasena have been. Roston Chase also has 5 x 100s, and 16 scores of over 50. There are no specialist bowlers here.

You could make a strong case that of all the specialists to ever play the game, no single player has lasted this long in test cricket being so rubbish. He is the last man standing all time.

This is not slightly below average. HE is the worst spinner in the game currently, approaching England's worst ever with only 1 or 2 other players in the mix, and he is arguably the worst specialist to have played as many games as he has in the entire history of the game.

Its a disaster.

[sussexpob]

Worth additionally noting that the current decade is also the most favourable for a century for spin bowling figures, so not only is Bashir putting up historically bad numbers on a flat analysis, he is doing it an an era what is historically great for spinners in general, and against batsman who are going through generational scoring slumps. Comparing someone like Giles and Bashir with similar WTC opposition averages in light of generic generation trends, leaves a huge performance gap in reality of 8-9 runs per wicket.

Averaging 40 in 2026 as a spinner is terrible. Averaging 40 between 2003-2009 was surprisingly close to average in a lot of cases.

[Durhamfootman]

he's very young for a spinner. He might improve as Mason Crane has improved after a number of years on the county circuit.

I would actually consider Crane as an option for England, all these years after he got completely monstered in his ashes test, so with so much time on his side there is hope for Bashir to craft a career. I wholeheartedly agree that he isn't going to do it now and his selection is as much a mystery to me as it is to SP. Liam Dawson retired from red ball cricket after Bashir's call up. I presume he just thought "what's the *modded* point?"

In a month's time he might have proved everybody wrong, who knows..... but it is really nothing more than a punt from England... I can't see how it can be anything else

[sussexpob]

he's very young for a spinner. He might improve as Mason Crane has improved after a number of years on the county circuit

The similarities in failed selection are present in both examples. For Crane, he couldn't hit the cut strip but could rip the ball. For Bashir it was being abnormally high and getting the ball to jump off the pitch. For all of these brilliant qualities, both averaged 50 odd in county cricket at the time they were picked. At some point common sense has to kick and say, well if this guy looks utterly rubbish vs a Derbyshire middle order player barely hanging on to a professional cricket career, how do we expect him to go to Australia and bowl against a line up (at the time) that was averaging 450 per completed innings?

Bashir is young, and yes you expect him to improve.... but even comparing him to the most similar player possible, the guy who replaced him at Somerset at 18-20 years old as their leading off-spinner has 44 wickets at 29. Bashir was averaging over 50-60 at Somerset. Archie Vaughan also opens the batting for them at stage this year, and can contribute with the bat. Even when narrowing down the search to spinners who played for Somerset in 2025, he is not even close to being the best, and not even close to being 2nd best. And we are talking 20-30 runs PER WICKET worse. I just don't get it. It takes a very purposeful counterfactual approach to somehow believe he's better than others.

Archie Vaughan is young. He's younger than Bashir.... he is also, on every metric, given as close to a perfect comparative sample as you could hope for, absolutely miles better than Bashir.

Somerset thought that. They thought Leach was better too.... but Rob Key has an Instagram account, so he knows better than a team that worked with all these players 24/7/365.

[sussexpob]

Meanwhile, I see Stokes is launching a bizarre defence of Archer going off on holiday to the Caribbean after the IPL, with rumours he might miss all of the series now. Stokes thinks not allowing this will push England players to ditching the national team. Was the whole multi-year contract thing supposed to have stopped this? Or did we learn after giving Mark Wood 3 million quid to stop him changing where he gets his physio treatment, we learned that this gigantic waste of money has turned out to be totally ineffectual?

The argument may work for some player, but for others.... Bethell? England pay him 5 times more than the IPL, yet he made the IPL his priority? Sorry Ben, but not buying this. People are free to choose what they do, but as far as I am concerned, you choose IPL over England, you don't play for England.

Let's see how many of these players are willing to jepordise 3 million quid guaranteed multi-year deals when you put that in the contract. One game unavailable for England, 3 months suspended without pay taken from the point of the next game scheduled as first day of suspension. I'd rather lose with players who prioritise playing for England, then have some wonderkid mercenaries swanning in when they feel like it.

There is a principle here after all. The BCCI will eventually extend the IPL to be bigger, and if we don't act now to protect the rest of cricket, we are done.

[Durhamfootman]

There's a lot of talk going around suggesting that the central contract system be changed so that the annual payment element of the contract becomes greatly reduced and the match fee element greatly enhanced

Would it work? I don't know, but it intuitively feels reasonable

[alfie]

I guess we have all been through this many times. I can already feel Alfie will be reading this rant today shaking his head in disapproval, but I just don't get it at all. I really, 100% honestly can't fathom it. I am not trying to wind people up or just defend previous points, it baffling to me.

....

Haha ... It wouldn't be CMS without you having an extensive rant about something , SP

Look , you are entitled to your views. I do shake my head a little at your assertion that all the England management (people who have actually played , coached etc at levels far beyond any of us on here ) are totally brainless fools with no understanding of the game ; but let that pass...

To be clear : I am not a fan of the Bashir experiment. I was a little bemused at his original selection ; mollified slightly by his quite reasonable performances in India (though I agree with you , the figures flattered him a little given the conditions ) and have continued to reserve judgement watching his subsequent often underwhelming results. However : given England have struggled to put on the field a spin bowler capable of actually winning Test Matches in helpful conditions , or really nailing down a strong support role in less favourable ones , since Swann twelve years ago , I can understand why they might be prepared to put a bit of work into someone that they have identified as having the potential to do a serious job once he develops his game.

Are they dreaming ? Is it likely that he will end up dumped like others tried (all too briefly) and all back to the drawing board ? Very possibly . As an England supporter I hope not but remain to be convinced. Just not ready to condemn the whole project as a write off just yet... not as if there have been many alternatives leaping out have there ?

(The whole Australian thing is a non-event for me. They thought his style would suit Aussie pitches : we will never know because in 2025 we didn't get Aussie pitches - even the home team's star spinner Lyon hardly bowled a ball ; and for whatever reason Bashir didn't play. From my own perspective I was very sceptical about the prospect of Bashir having any influence as I've seen too many even highly regarded English spinners being ineffective in this country : would have preferred them to pick a holding spinner who could bat - which in the end I guess they did , in the person of Jacks. I'd have liked to see Hartley but he seems to have drifted off the radar. All irrelevant now...it is done)

One of the biggest problems facing young English spinners seems to be that they just don't get enough action in the CC in even remotely favourable conditions : and indeed many find themselves sitting on the bench at critical times in their careers - something not very helpful to their development. I'd say that certainly hasn't helped Bashir ; and it is possible the change of County which is getting him more game time might be doing some good . (Not interested in comparing averages : unless we are watching all of these games to see the circumstances I don't believe raw figures in the CC in May mean a lot for the Test arena.)

To sum up : I understand why they are persisting with Bashir , and do not believe it is simply pig headedness - though of course it may well prove misguided. I don't think I'd be picking him ; but I am not there watching him at training or privy to all the analysis available to the management. Nor have I played or coached at First Class level (my coaching certificate is at a slightly lower level) so my opinion is possibly not worth a lot. I somehow doubt a wet week in early June at Lord's is going to tell us a lot anyway so I imagine we can continue this later in the season ; but for now I am happy to leave it to the appointed men to pick the team - and hope it works out.

You are of course free to throw rotten fruit at the whole business - and indeed at my theories

But I hope we can all agree to get behind the team - and potentially take pleasure if the results are decent ; rather than just dwell on the sidelines looking for opportunities to put the boot in whenever our personal choices are disregarded ?

[alfie]

Passing on ...

A pity the forecast is so dire : could be a good series. NZ with a largely new bowling group this time around after Boult/Southee/Wagner etc...they look promising enough if the likes of Henry Jamieson and O'Rourke can stay fit , with Santner to supply spin support. Couple of their bats don't have great records in England but overall the line-up doesn't look too flimsy : and England will be going in with a bit of a new bowling group in the absence of Anderson Broad and Woakes for the first time in decades in the home summer.

As for the England batting : plenty to prove after Australia. Gay - new. Duckett - rather "found out" in Aus , one might suggest ? Bethell - no recent red ball work and needs to back up that hundred in Sydney. Brook : also underwhelming in Aus and needs to show he can do it consistently against the Big Teams : similar for Smith . Both these two have good overall figures ; but neither has toured India yet , and both (Smith more markedly) didn't live up to expectations In Australia so will want to show that was just a blip. And Stokes - down at seven now - obviously could do with some of those commanding innings he used to produce . At least they will bat down to nine !

Looking forward to seeing how Robinson goes on his recall . If he can show the sort of form he had in 2021 and stay strong over five days he will be a huge asset and mean we miss the aforementioned heroes a bit less...

[Arthur Crabtree]

Well I hope he does well because England need a spinner, he doesn't seem to be an **** and his height makes him interestingly unorthodox. Plus it's good for the side to be a bit less monocultural.

Though I concede that Alfie and Sussex- from their contrasting perspectives- have coached me out of any expectation that he will succeed. And he doesn't seem to have given Derbys much this season, even on 4th day pitches.

But I am at least encouraged that a proper spinner has been selected. And that he has survived an astonishingly humiliating Ashes tour. I will take a lot of pleasure from any wickets he may contribute.