It was a brief conversation with Shane Warne, exactly five years in February 2019, that left an indelible mark on Shoaib Bashir, then just 16.

The young spinner was with the Rajasthan Royals Academy in Surrey, where the late Warne was there to interact with the trainees. Bashir caught his eye and took him aside for a chat. Siddartha Lahiri, head of coaching at RR Academy, remembers the exchange like it was yesterday. 'Are you a spinner or a fast bowler?' asked the former Australian leg-spinner, according to Lahiri. 'Spinner,' responded Bashir, who's an offie. 'What do you need to do then?' the Aussie quizzed him again. It's one of those trick questions, Bashir reckoned. 'Bowl?'. Warne corrected him, 'No, spin the ball. Don't think of anything else. T20, T10, five-day, four-day, nothing. Just spin the ball.' It was a lesson Bashir put to good use as he bowled a compact 31-over spell in Ranchi on Saturday to disable the Indian batting at a decisive juncture in the series. In Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubhman Gill and Ravindra Jadeja, he bested three Indian centurions in the series on Day 2 of the fourth Test. The signs of his ability had been put on display much before. In Visakhapatnam, Bashir dismissed the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma for his first Test wicket 20 balls into his debut in England's whites.