Ben Stokes, England all-rounder hailed Pakistan’s Yasir Shah. He compared to Aussie legend Shane Warne. Stokes said Yasir is the best leg-spinner since Australia great Shane Warne.
“Yasir Shah, I reckon, is the best leg-spinner since Shane Warne. They are a very good team but we go into the Test match knowing how he goes about bowling and we should be able to counteract that,” Stokes told.
“They are a very good team but we go into the Test match knowing how he goes about bowling and we should be able to counteract that. Another thing we will have to try and adapt to and we’ll just see how it goes,” he added.
Shah bowled Pakistan to a 75-run win over England in the first Test at Lord’s last week with a brilliant match haul of 10 for 141. His return left Shah atop the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test bowler rankings and was all the more impressive as the pitch at Lord’s did not offer excessive turn. That left Shah with 86 wickets in a mere 13 Tests at an average of 23, compared to Warne’s mammoth 708 in 145 Tests at just over 25 apiece in a career that ended in 2007.
Stokes has not played for England since injuring his knee in the first Test against Sri Lanka in May. He returned to action as a batsman only with Durham before, after being deemed not fully fit for the Pakistan opener, bowling for his county against Lancashire last week. Having not shown any adverse effects following his bowling stint, the 25-year-old Stokes is eager to resume his England career.
“It’s the first game where I have played doing both parts of my game,” he explained.
“I have been playing as a batsman for two weeks, it is something I definitely did need, to get myself back into match situations.I have been bowling in the nets but you can’t replicate doing that, the only thing you can do is a bowl in a game. So it was good at that point and it was a massive confidence boost,” he said.
England are 1-0 down in the four-match series and Stokes is in line for a recall to bolster the home side’s batting as much as for his lively pace bowling.