IND vs ENG: Ben Stokes says he’s ‘frustrated’ by visa delay for Shoaib Bashir that ruled him out of 1st Test

England cricket team skipper Ben Stokes has spoken of his “frustration” over the visa delay of spinner Shoaib Bashir for their tour of India, which will start on Thursday with the first Test to be held at Hyderabad.

England are scheduled to play five Tests against India, and have picked an inexperienced troika of spinners including Bashir. The 20-year-old will be missing the first Test due to the delay and it is learnt that the Somerset off spinner has had to return to the UK.

“Especially as captain I find it particularly frustrating,” Stokes was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

“We announced that squad in mid-December, and now Bash finds himself without a visa to get here. I am more frustrated for him. I didn’t want this type of situation to be his first experience of what it’s like to be in the England Test team. I feel for him.

“But he’s not the first cricketer to go through this, I have played with a lot of people who have had the same issues. I find it frustrating that we have picked a player and he’s not with us because of visa issues. Especially for a young lad, I’m devastated for him. It’s a frustrating situation to be in, but a lot of people have been trying to get it through. It’s unfortunate and I’m very frustrated for him.”

While Bashir holds a British passport and was born in Surrey, he is of Pakistani heritage.

The rest of the England team arrived in India on Sunday from Abu Dhabi where they were training. It has been reported that Rehan Ahmed, another young spinner named in the England side who has a similar background, already had the necessary paperwork since he was a standby for the Cricket World Cup.

In 2023, Usman Khawaja, who was born in Islamabad, was also forced to arrive in India much later than the rest of the Australian team due to a similar visa delay. Pakistan’s visas for the recent ODI World Cup were only issued a day before they were scheduled to fly out, forcing them to cancel a pre-season training camp in Dubai.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was quoted by the BBC as saying the government expects British citizens to be treated fairly by India’s visa processes.

“I can’t speak to the specifics of this case. But more broadly we have previously raised issues of this kind with the High Commission. We have been clear that we expect India to treat British citizens fairly at all times in its visa processes. We have previously raised the issues British citizens with Pakistani heritage have experienced. We’ve raised the issues about their experience of applying for visas with the Indian High Commissioner in London,” said the spokesperson.

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