England spinner Shoaib Bashir yet to arrive in India after visa issue

England arrived in India on Monday without Shoaib Bashir after a visa problem kept the uncapped spinner in Abu Dhabi.

The squad, who had been holding a training camp in the UAE ahead of Thursday's start of the first Test in Hyderabad, were already a man down after batsman Harry Brook returned home for personal reasons.

And they were reduced to 14 men when Somerset off-spinner Bashir, whose parents are of Pakistani heritage, was unable to join his teammates on the flight to India.

Pakistani media endured visa delays in the run-up to the recent World Cup in India but England coach Brendon McCullum was optimistic that Indian cricket authorities, and indeed the government, could aid Bashir's arrival following an approach by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

"Bash will join us hopefully tomorrow, he's got a couple of issues with his visa coming through," said McCullum.

"We're confident on the back of the help from the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and the Indian government that it will sort itself out pretty quickly as well.

"Things take time, don't they? Everyone is doing what they can. It's a process we need to go through and we're pretty confident that we're close. We've also got a little bit of support out there for him so he's not on his own.

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