Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley delivered 51 of the 73 overs sent down by the tourists on the second day of the Test, with the former at one stage bowling 31 unchanged, before taking a single over off for a change of ends
Alastair Cook was full of praise for England's young spinners on Saturday, admitting it was "the best I've seen England spinners bowl for a long time" as Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley turned the screw against India in Ranchi.
The pair delivered 51 of the 73 overs sent down by the tourists on the second day of the Test, with Bashir at one stage bowling 31 unchanged, before taking a single over off for a change of ends.
He finished with the first four-wicket haul of his short professional career, accounting for Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Ravindra Jadeja and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the process.
His previous four-fer came for Somerset against Northamptonshire's second team last May, a reminder of how far the 20-year-old has come in so little time. Indeed, the lbws of Gill and Patidar were just his second and third such dismissals as a pro.
As impressive as the wickets, though, was their collective control; Bashir was taken at 2.62 runs per over and Hartley, who finished with 2 for 47 in 19 overs, was stingier still.
"It's all well and good having a captain who moves the field and does this, does that," said Cook, providing punditry on TNT Sports. "But if your bowlers don't deliver, then it doesn't matter what you do.
"When I captained there in 2016, we bowled four or five balls per over, but we'd always let off the pressure with one bad ball.
"And actually, spinners over the last two or three years for England have had that bit of a trait. But today was the best I've seen England spinners bowl for a long time – they didn't do that.
Tom Hartley took two more wickets (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images)
"And when you're batting and you know there's a bad ball coming, you can just sit and wait because you've got a bad ball. It might not come in this over, but it's definitely coming next over.
"Bashir and Hartley today, I can only remember four or five balls that I thought, 'Well, that's a bit of a pie.' To do that over a whole period – and we keep mentioning their age, but being a spin bowler is about experience and learning your trade – was incredibly impressive."
The pair, both uncapped ahead of this series, have played just 32 first-class matches between them, but both have impressed on this tour, doing their reputations no harm at all. Given the absences of Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed – who were England's only capped spinners ahead of the first Test – their success has been all the more remarkable.
"Two young spinners in particular; to stand up and perform like that is really encouraging for English cricket, for us for the rest of this series and for the rest of this Test match," added Joe Root, speaking after the close.
On Bashir specifically, he said: "He has got great character, a great sense of humour. He takes that all out onto the field, and he's clearly got huge amounts of ability and skill and a lot to offer, especially on a surface like this.
"It was great to see him keep coming time and time again, asking really difficult questions of the lower order. He should take a lot of confidence for the rest of this game and moving on as well."
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