Both Indian and England Captains Rohit Sharma and Ben Stokes extended their support for the young cricketer Shoaib Bashir who has gone back to the UK to sort out his visa issue.
Rohit Sharma extends support for Shoaib Bashir
The uncapped spinner Shoaib Bashir had returned home from Abu Dhabi as his visa to travel to India is getting delayed.
With the side set to play a five-match Test series on England’s tour of India, the 20-year-old spinner from Pakistani heritage will be missing the first Test which is set to start on Thursday.
On this occasion, Rohit Sharma expressed his support for the player saying, “I feel for him honestly, he’s probably coming for the first time with the England set-up.”
“And obviously not easy for anyone, that could be one of our guys coming to England, who has been denied or not able to get the visa…Unfortunately, I don’t sit in the visa office to give you more details,” said Rohit in the Pre-match conference.
“But I hope he can make it here quickly and enjoy our country and play some cricket as well,” he concluded.
Ben Stokes continued to support his teammate saying, “When I first found the news out in Abu Dhabi, I did say we shouldn’t fly until Bash gets his visa but that was a little bit tongue in cheek,” said Stokes.
“I know it’s a way bigger thing, doing that. That was probably just (my) emotions around the whole thing. There was never a chance that we were not going to travel around this but Bash knows he’s had our full support.”
“I’m pretty devastated that Bash has had to go through this. As a leader, as a captain, when one of your team-mates is affected by something like that you do get a bit emotional.
“I know he’s back in London and a lot of people are jumping through hoops to try and get this through quicker. Hopefully, we’re going to see him here over the weekend,” he said.
This is not the first time Pakistani-related players have experienced holdups to travel for India. The Lancashire’s Saqib Mahmood and Australian Cricket Usman Khawaja have also experienced the same kind of issues.
Even the Pakistan Cricket Board has written a letter for the delay in the Visa clearance for the team members to travel to India to play in the ODI World Cup 2023.
However, the first test match will start on January 25 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
