News about Graeme Swann

As Shoaib Bashir spun England to victory over West Indies at Trent Bridge on Sunday evening, it was a dot ball - as much as any of his five wickets - that confirmed the promise spotted by Ben Stokes last summer on social media. Pitching wide of off stump, it lured Jason Holder into the drive, before turning back sharply through the gate and only narrowly missing the stumps. In execution, if not quite outcome, it was reminiscent of the delivery with which Graeme Swann dismissed Ricky Ponting at Edgbaston in 2009. Swann was playing his 10th Test to Bashir's fifth, but he was 30, a decade older than Bashir is now. And yet Bashir already has three five-wicket hauls, even though he didn't bowl a ball against the West Indians at Lord's. Not since left-arm spinner Nick Cook in the 1980s has an England player taken so many five-fors in his first five Tests.

NASSER HUSSAIN: This was a decent start to Shoaib Bashir's home Test career, but because of his age and lack of experience there is much to learn for England's rising spin bowler. One thing you must remember about Bashir is that he is 20 and as a spinner, you're probably not peaking in international cricket until you hit 30. In contrast to Graeme Swann, who spent 10 years learning his craft in county cricket and didn't make his debut until 29, he is learning on the job.

RICHARD GIBSON: Former world champion Graeme Swann insists England's Saturday showdown with Ashes rivals Australia has taken on must-win status following the rain-hit start to their Twenty20 title defence. Taking a point off Scotland, Swann smiled, was akin to dodging a bullet given England's woeful record against associate nations in tournaments. Indeed, Swann was a member of the Andy Flower-coached team careering towards defeat to Ireland when wet weather caused an abandonment at the same stage of the victorious 2010 World Cup, also on Caribbean soil.

Shoaib Bashir has impressed me the most out of the three young spinners to play Test cricket for England this winter. Not just because he took four wickets here, but also because he looks like a finger spinner who might do well in England and elsewhere in the long run. He has command of the spin trio, as well as Tom Hartley and Rehan Ahmed, which will be crucial when returning home. To be successful in any situation, you must be able to deceive the very best players before the ball lands, and Graeme Swann did a good job with Ricky Ponting's dismissal in the 2009 Edgbaston Ashes Test.

Ben Stokes' side recovered with a 196 from Ollie Pope as he came back from a jittery first innings to play one of his country's best abroad. Tom Hartley, the debutant spinner, made a comeback of his own by taking seven second innings wickets to spin his team to victory by 28 runs. With confidence on their side and a series win in India, England will now go into the remainder of the series, an unprecedented occurrence in the modern age.

Fast starts, keeping India's spinners quiet, runs on the board and picking the right team! Those are the keys to touring success, as told to Mail Sport by England's heroes of 2012, when the last Test team to beat mighty India on their own turf.

JASON GILLESPIE: A lot of attention has been paid to Jack Leach's return to India ahead of England's Test series, and some of the interview concerns about him has been utter rubbish. It was a raucous comment made by Graeme Swann that if Leach had been healthy, England would have won the Ashes series rather than sharing it 2-2. No way, in the fullest respect. I'm not positive one player will have such an effect on a series like that, and from the other side of the world, there seem to be so many English excuses for the result.

Exclusive INTERVIEW BY PAUL NEWMAN: Swann, 44, has been allowed to bring a completely updated philosophy to modern England as a result of almost a decade on the sidelines after retiring with 255 Test wickets to his name, he has been welcomed back to the fold. As an ECB coach and consultant, he has been closely working with the spinners about to embark on the most difficult task in Test cricket, taking on India in their own terms, as well as those who will shadow them with the Lions. And he is relishing it.

Moeen Ali's spinning finger brought back memories of England spin bowling predecessor Graeme Swann's habit of dipping his bowling hand in his own urine to harden the skin. Swann, a cricketer who is well-known for removing the pee from others, discovered that his own wee was the best of many liquids used at the start of his career. The application of uric acid to the digits was the most common practice for spinners of yesteryear and Swann, England's only off-spinner before Moeen's Test wicket-taking list, and Friar's Balsam was used.

PAUL NEWMAN - WORLD OF CRICKET: He was known for his optimism when becoming one of England's top spinners, and Graeme Swann was back to the front page on Wednesday, when delivering their verdict on England's new big call. "I think it makes us healthier," Swann said about Moeen Ali's sudden rise from Test retirement to frontline Ashes spinner. Jack Leach was doing well, but this move extended the batting and now we have an off-spinner bowling at all those Australian lefties.' I'm thrilled to see him back. Mo's still a natural performer.' It's been a back injury to Leach, who was ever present in England's Test reconstruction under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, that has now and unexpectedly opened the door to an all-rounder who had previously told the coach, "I'm done."

It's funny to think that cricket would never have broken the rules of being a strange ball game virtually unheard of by the rest of the world. It was perhaps an island nation, but with its long maritime history, it had a reach way beyond its size. And of all the signs of Britain's loitering in foreign nations, cricket has to be one of the few things it left behind that is both very apparent and distinctive, and it is impossible to knock even to the most awakened. Simon Wilde's extensive history of the English cricket team abroad is so packed with excitement. Cricket tours are long, action-packed, and often gossip-filled.

England won the first Test by 74 runs in Rawalpindi over a dead pitch, the setting sun, and a dogged Pakistan. Ben Stokes made a fourth day declaration that could have backfired on England, and, in fact, Pakistan appeared firmly on track to win by 343 points. But Jimmy Anderson and Ollie Robinson were out for four wickets apiece after they managed to pull something out of the surface before Jack Leach ended it. So where does this win rank among England's finest overseas? LAWRENCE BOOTH, a renowned newspaper in the United States, is ranked in the top five by the best of the top five.

Sam Curran's tournament haul of 13 wickets was the most by an England bowler at any T20 World Cup, defeating ten by David Willey in 2016, and then by Ryan Sidebottom - another left-armer, and Graeme Swann when England last triumphed the trophy in 2010. Since winning the trophy twice in 2012 and 2016, England became the second team to win it twice. Alex Hales' only one player in the World Cup had more sixes than the ten. Sikandar Raza of Zimbabwe managed 11, but from two innings more.

As he continues to develop his coaching career, Graeme Swann will serve as a mentor for the England Lions next week. Swann, a member of the Hundred champions Trent Rockets' backroom staff under Andy Flower last summer, has been hired as a consultant alongside another former multiple Ashes winner, Ian Bell, who will help the batters on the trip. We have two people with so much international experience in Ian Bell and Graeme Swann, it's brilliant to have them as part of the organisation, and I'm looking forward to working with them,' said Mo Bobat, the ECB's performance director.'

'I've seen enough' when Emilio Gay's 145 for Northamptonshire against Surrey made the social media rounds last week, as experienced judge David 'Bumble' Lloyd said.' All round the wicket was shot, with a string of strong cover-drives off West Indies' Kemar Roach and some ferocious cuts. Every stroke had an economy of movement. Gay is 22 years old. He is certainly an opener, and English cricket could do with one or two of those.

Exclusive INTERVIEW BY RICHARD GIBSON: Edgbaston's post-match revelions were a few drinks down when Jack Leach came out with the line that best sums up England's nimble new approach to Test cricket. Rival teams may have been more effective, according to a delirious staff room, but none will be braver after being converted from a record run chase of 378 to a seven-wicket cruise in defeating India. 'It was the realization from me that India played a lot of the cricket in that tournament.' For three days, we had been outplayed,