Spinner Shoaib Bashir has been granted an Indian visa and could possibly be again with the England Test squad by the weekend.

The 20-year-old, who’s of Pakistani heritage, was initially left in Abu Dhabi when England travelled from their coaching camp to Hyderabad on Sunday.

On Tuesday, it emerged that he had returned to the UK, and the issuing of the visa was confirmed on Wednesday.

“The visa has been issued by London,” a spokesperson for the Indian Foreign Office stated.

“There are rules and regulations governing the issuance of an Indian visa. The same were being applied in this case.”

Somerset off-spinner Bashir will miss the primary Test, which begins on Thursday.

Speaking earlier on Wednesday, England captain Ben Stokes stated there was “never a chance” England would boycott the opening match of the five-Test sequence in help of Bashir.

He admitted he had floated the concept of a boycott among the many workforce, however stated it was “tongue in cheek”.

“As a leader, as a captain, when one of your team-mates is affected by something like that you do get a bit emotional,” Stokes stated. “I’m devastated for him.”

The uncapped Bashir was a shock call-up to the England squad for this tour, having performed solely six first-class matches.

He will not be the primary cricketer of Pakistani origin to wrestle to achieve entry to India, because of long-running political tensions between the 2 international locations.

Australia opener Usman Khawaja, who was born in Pakistan, had his arrival for a Test tour final yr delayed, whereas your complete Pakistan squad for final yr’s World Cup in India confronted related delays.

BBC Test Match Special commentator Aatif Nawaz, whose household are from Pakistan, additionally confronted delays in receiving a visa for the World Cup and finally didn’t journey to the event.

Bashir’s fellow England spinner, Rehan Ahmed, can be of Pakistani origin, however has a visa from final yr as he acted as reserve for the World Cup squad.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated the federal government expects British residents to be handled pretty by India.

“I can’t speak to the specifics of this case. But more broadly we have previously raised issues of this kind with the high commission. We have been clear that we expect India to treat British citizens fairly at all times in its visa processes,” stated the spokesperson.