“We tried to look at how we thought spin was going to be used,” captain Ben Stokes said of Jacks’s selection for the second Test ahead of Bashir. “And there was a bit of a tactical element to it. Obviously Jacksy’s ability with the bat down the order is useful to us as well.”
With England’s second Test a day-night affair at the Gabba, the broad consensus is that while spin will play some role across the Test, it won’t be significant. A scenario that gave England a choice. Pick Bashir, who they consider the better spinner, or pick Jacks, who offers less with the ball, but extends the batting line-up at No8 and is a superior fielder.
“If it ever comes down to picking our best, No1 spinner, selection would have gone the other way,” Stokes said. “We thought this was the best XI for the conditions and circumstances of the game. Bashir knows that if it was down to picking our best spinner, he’d have played.”
Jacks in practice ahead of the second Ashes Test at the Gabba
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Coming to the crease at a moment of stress after Ben Stokes and Jamie Smith were out in quick succession, Jacks steadied the innings with a composed and authoritative 19, before he was caught in the slips to a Mitchell Starc ball he should have left alone. His frustration was clear to see, perhaps in the knowledge that he had looked right at home in the Gabba arena, in fine nick and should have pressed on.
‘Strength to strength’
Jacks’s two previous Test appearances came in 2022 during England’s tour of Pakistan, where the all-rounder claimed a six-wicket haul on debut. An attacking off-spinner, his best ball is as good as anyone’s — just ask Root, who he clean bowled during the warm-up match in Perth — but, as is to be expected, he does not always have the control of a frontline spinner.
It is a left-field but pragmatic choice and rewards a bold squad selection where Jacks pipped the more favoured leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed for the final spot on the plane as the second spinner. Now he’s in the XI.
“I know my game a lot better now,” Jacks, who has 50 white-ball caps for England, said after his selection. “I was very raw at that time, especially in first-class cricket. I’m a much more rounded and developed cricketer now.”
Jacks bowls attacking off spin
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Jacks’s home county is Surrey, where he has, on occasion, played as their first-choice spinner, with head coach Gareth Batty previously stating he believes Jacks could follow in the footsteps of former England all-rounder Moeen Ali who started as a batter who bowled, but finished his career with 204 Test wickets.
“There are parallels there,” Batty said of Jacks in an interview in 2022. “Moeen grew into the frontline spinner that could also get you a hundred. Tell me a team that doesn’t want that.”
Despite Stokes caveating the selection, Jacks’s inclusion signals a shift and is the first-time that Bashir has been left out for tactical reasons since he became first-choice spinner at the beginning of the 2024 summer.
Bashir had been plucked from relative obscurity and given a Test debut after only six first-class matches, with England believing he had the raw attributes to excel in international cricket. But his career since has been a curious one. First-choice for England, but third choice for his county last year, Somerset, where both Jack Leach and Archie Vaughan were selected ahead of him. Now, rather than taking the field for England at the Gabba, Bashir will play for the England Lions against Australia “A” in a four-day match that begins on day two of the Test.
There is every chance that Bashir may feature later in the series, with more spin-friendly surfaces expected, but Stokes left the door open for Jacks to press his case to remain in the side.
“Definitely,” Stokes said of whether Jacks has a chance to establish himself in the team. “He’s turned himself into the cricketer I always thought he could be. He’s incredibly talented and I think he’s gone from strength to strength.
“He’s been playing so well in the nets and the time he’s been out here training. It’s great for us that we’ve got someone who’s looking in pretty good order coming into a big Test match.”
In theory, this is a horses-for-courses selection with Bashir’s spot still safe. In practice, it is anything but.
