Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Kerr: We’ll do what is best for all our players
SOMERSET will consider letting emerging England star Shoaib Bashir leave the club on loan this summer – with head coach Jason Kerr weighing up how best to manage the next step of the spinner’s developing career.
Bashir was fast-tracked into the Test squad in India after just six first-class matches and has quickly grown into his new surroundings, with 12 wickets in two very mature outings for his country.
Bashir, 20, has been identified as a player with significant long-term potential by the ECB, but with his path to first-team cricket at Taunton blocked by Jack Leach – currently recovering from knee surgery but England’s first-choice slow bowler – his immediate future is less clear.
England head coach Brendon McCullum said last week it would be “slightly mad” if both Bashir and Lancashire’s Tom Hartley, who has Australia’s Nathan Lyon in his way at Old Trafford, were kept on the sidelines in the county season and Kerr appreciates the dilemma.
“It’s certainly not easy, but I always try to put myself in the player’s shoes and what they want is to play cricket,” he told the PA news agency.
“Bash will be on cloud nine right now and riding that. He would have seen the world very differently at the start of the winter than he does now that he’s had opportunities internationally and done very well. So it’s important to have really honest, transparent conversations.
“We start the season on April 5 and I’d be surprised if too many teams are playing two specialist spinners, so understand there will be some questions about it.
“There’s still a lot of water to go under the bridge, but what I’m not going to do is stand in the way of anyone’s opportunity.
“We will always do what is best for the player and we’ve done it time and time again. We’ve allowed people to go on loan and get some cricket because it can benefit them and us in the future, and we’ve said no to players because they’re next in line and we might need them. We will look at each case as it arises but, historically, we’ve been open to it.”
Bashir’s rapid rise effectively reprises the situation Somerset had when fellow off-spinner Dom Bess emerged. He and Leach began by working in tandem on turning pitches but, when Bess was elevated to the Test side, the pair eventually found themselves competing for one spot. Leach held that berth, with Bess moving on to Yorkshire, and Kerr made it clear he retains full faith in a player who has given more than a decade of good service to Somerset.
“It’s important we see both of the guys bowling first but we also look at what Leachy has done for club and country over the years,” he said.
“We always want competition for places and we want it to be healthy. Nobody has the right to start but Jack has got a lot of experience and, from my side, that counts for a lot. Bash has so much time to grow and to become a world-class spinner who can bowl on all surfaces and know when to defend and attack. He’ll be coming back from India to very different conditions in the UK.
“We’re an ambitious club and we want to inspire players to represent England. We want to help them fulfil those aspirations and that doesn’t change whether it’s Shoaib or Jack.”