IND vs ENG 2024: Want Bashir and Hartley to have more opportunities in County cricket – Brendon McCullum

England head coach Brendon McCullum wants the spin duo of Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley to get more opportunities in County cricket. The pair has performed more than the expectations against India despite having less experience at the first-class level.

While Hartley is the leading wicket-taker in the series with 20 scalps in four Test matches at an average of 33.45, Bashir has bagged 12 wickets in two Test matches at an average of 32.83.

Before the start of the ongoing Test series, Bashir had picked 10 wickets in six first-class matches whereas Tom Hartley had snared 40 wickets in 20 first-class matches.

“It will be a slight frustration of ours if they weren’t given opportunities at county level,” McCullum told reporters on Tuesday in a press conference.

“There’s a very real possibility that might be the case, but without wanting to dictate to counties because they have their own agendas as well, when you see performances like we have out of those two bowlers throughout the series, I think you’d be slightly mad if you didn’t give them more opportunities in county cricket.”

McCullum is hopeful that these opportunities at the County level will help them improve at a quicker rate and it will be of great help when England tours the subcontinent.

​​”It would be nice to think they’d get plenty of opportunities so that they can improve at a quicker rate. Whether those opportunities are with counties or with England, I think we’ve just got to keep trying to get cricket into them,” McCullum said.

“Whatever opportunity we can, we’ll try and give it to them because there are two guys there more than good enough for international cricket. They’re also tough characters,” McCullum added.

The fifth and final Test match will be played at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala from March 7.