Ansari thrilled by Test call up after being thwarted by broken thumb
● Surrey all-rounder’s chance to impress
England Test debutant Zafar Ansari took pride in getting back into contention for the team so soon after a broken thumb left him on the sidelines all last winter.
It has been a fluctuating past 12 months for the all-rounder but he was set to make his maiden Test appearance against Bangladesh in Dhaka early this morning after England captain Alastair Cook announced he would replace fellow spinner and Surrey team-mate Gareth Batty.
He would arguably have made his bow long before now but for that thumb injury, sustained while fielding for Surrey on the same day he was named in England’s Test squad to face Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.
The issue troubled him for a number of months and into the domestic season but he did enough in taking 22 wickets in 10 Specsavers County Championship matches over the summer to book his spot on the plane to Bangladesh.
Despite taking four for 68 in the second warm-up fixture, Ansari was overlooked in favour of Batty, his captain at Surrey, in England’s tense 22-run victory in the first Test in Chittagong.
But the slow left-armer was one of two changes to England’s line-up, with Steven Finn coming into the side in place of Stuart Broad, as they look to seal a 2-0 series success over the Tigers.
Ansari said: “It’s very exciting, obviously. After winning the first Test, I wasn’t sure if they’d stick with the same side. I wasn’t necessarily too hopeful of getting the call-up so to get that is really exciting.
“At the moment, I’m not too nervous about it. I guess I’m going into quite a strong group, so you feel relatively protected by that. It’s a nice thing to say I’ve done and I’m really looking forward to it.
“Getting into the squad felt like the moment I thought I’d overcome last winter and everything I went through.
“But yes, I suppose having missed seven months of doing anything, to have got back to this point quite quickly after that feels like an achievement. We’ll see how it goes.”
Ansari made his England debut in May 2015 in a one-off one-day international against Ireland in Dublin, although he did not get a chance to bowl or bat as the contest was washed out after 18 overs. He sees his first Test appearance as a chance to make his mark before a potentially gruelling five-match series in India.
“It’s an opportunity to stake a claim,” he said. “It is a one-off Test match clearly in that Batts made a good case for playing in this match, he bowled well in the first Test match, so I think it is a way of seeing how I go in Test cricket.”
England skipper Cook is evidently impressed by what he has seen from Ansari in training over the past couple of weeks – although he revealed it was always the plan to give the 24-year-old and Batty one Test each in this series.
“It was,” Cook said. “We could have gone the other way round. We did want to give Zafar a go. Clearly he has the ability to take the ball away from the right-handers.
“One thing I’ve seen in the nets is he can bowl at good pace with good control. It will be really interesting to see how he goes. he can also bat as well, which is good.”
Cook, who was Ansari’s first first-class wicket, admitted it was a tough decision to rest Broad and his omission means he will have to wait until the India series, and the opener in Rajkot on November 9, for his 100th Test appearance.
“I’m sure he’d have liked to have got that milestone but this is a case of looking a bit further to the future and he understands the amount of cricket he could play over the next six weeks,” Cook said.
“We want other people up and running, we don’t want to go to India with too many people not playing any cricket.”
ANSWERING THE CALL “It’s very exciting. After winning the first Test, I wasn’t sure if they’d stick with the same side. I wasn’t too hopeful of getting the call-up so to get that is really exciting”
ZAFAR ANSARI