The Derbyshire coach Mickey Arthur has hailed Shoaib Bashir as a “national treasure” and backed his new signing to put a bruising winter with England behind him and do justice to his “unbelievable talent”.

Selected as England’s frontline spinner for the Ashes, Bashir did not play a single Test after an unconvincing performance in a warm-up game in Perth, with Will Jacks’s part-time off spin preferred. The 22-year-old was earmarked for the Ashes soon after attracting the attention of Ben Stokes in a social media clip. But, despite becoming the youngest Englishman to take 50 wickets, he now faces an uncertain Test future.

Derbyshire is Bashir’s fourth county after an unsuccessful start with Surrey and two fruitless loan stints at Worcestershire and Glamorgan while at Somerset, where he was second choice behind Jack Leach. However, Arthur, the former South Africa and Australia head coach, said that “the world is his oyster” and described Bashir as “an unbelievable talent whose growth is going to be massive”.

Having moved from the West Country on his return to England, Bashir says that he has found a home at Derbyshire and intends to bowl a lot of overs to try to regain his Test place. However, after a winter carrying the drinks, he is in a reflective mood.

“I still feel like I was bowling quite nicely,” he said. “It’s just one of those [situations] where you’re always looking to learn. I’m still so young and I don’t take that for granted at all. I didn’t mind [not playing] — I was more than happy just observing, watching. I’m young and I’ve still got to take in a lot of information.

“Obviously I didn’t play a Test but at the same time I think Nathan Lyon bowled only two overs in Perth and then didn’t play again until Adelaide and then they [Australia] didn’t play a spinner, so obviously it [the series] was very situational and the teams were selected on a game-to-game basis and spin didn’t play a massive part in the Ashes.”

The message from the England management to Bashir was to just try to play as much as possible in the early season and then “see where we are”.

Immediately after the Ashes, Bashir went to Zimbabwe, where England Under-19 were playing in the junior World Cup, to work with the former Pakistan spinner Mushtaq Ahmed.

“I’ve worked really closely with him,” Bashir said. “I got to learn so much about my bowling and my mindset with him after the Ashes. I didn’t have much going on after the Ashes. I spoke to Mushy on the phone quite a lot and I just wanted to get some time to spend with him. I spent a week with him and learnt a lot about my action — really small technical tweaks that have helped me in pre-season and I am looking forward to working on those because I feel like they will make a massive difference.

“I feel really good mentally, actually. I’ve got a lot of backing and support from the people here at Derbyshire and from England as well. I had time to reflect mentally, and physically I am in a strong place.”