MANY Somerset fans and even England cricket fans were left confused as to why young spinner Shoaib Bashir wasn't included in the first squad for the County Championship season.

Bashir impressed on tour for England earlier in the year and has a bright future, both for Somerset and his country.

Head coach of Somerset Jason Kerr explained his exclusion from the squad was due to the match being shortened due to the weather.

He said: "This wicket has been under the covers for the last week and it’s rained for the last two days pretty much non stop, so there’s a huge amount of moisture.

"With it being a shortened game we didn’t feel that Bash was going to bowl overs.

"Due to us being slow with the over rate and the wind being a factor, blowing the bails off, we fell behind, so we needed to use Lewis (Goldsworthy) and Matt Renshaw to accelerate that."

He did say that if the match would have been a full four-day game, Bashir would have likely been selected.

“He was available for selection and I think if it had been a four-day game there’s a good chance he would have played," he said.