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"I have a target of 20 wickets (in the two Tests against Australia)" : Yasir Shah

Abdullah719

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Match-winning spinner Yasir Shah has sent a warning to Australia's batsmen that he is targeting 20 wickets and a win in the two-match Test series starting in Dubai on Sunday.

The 32-year-old has been Pakistan's main spin weapon since making his Test debut against Australia at the same venue four years ago.

He and left-armer Zulfiqar Babar took 26 wickets between them to rout Australia 2-0.

Yasir again holds the key for Pakistan in the two-match series, with the second in Abu Dhabi from October 16.

“I have a target of 20 wickets,” Yasir told AFP. “I know how important it will be to take wickets so that remains my target and for the team to win the series which is very important.”

Yasir has grown in stature and wickets with each series. He took 24 wickets in three Tests in a series win over Sri Lanka a year later.

His 10 wickets at Lord's and five at The Oval formed the basis of Pakistan's 1-1 series draw in England two years ago before he took 25 in a 2-1 win in the West Indies in 2017 — Pakistan's first series win in the Caribbean.

Yasir said Australia will miss the guile of banned duo Steven Smith and David Warner, who are each banned for a year for their part in a ball-tampering row in South Africa earlier this year.

“No doubt, Smith and Warner are two world-class players and Australia will miss them,” said Yasir. “(They) know the art of staying at the wicket so that will be missed by Australia.

“But we can't take any team lightly. They have a few good players and a few of them I have played with in the Big Bash (Australia's Twenty20 league) so I know their strong and weak points.

“You can't say they are weak, maybe inexperienced. They're always a strong side. That series (in 2014) was my first and so I'm going to try to improve on that.”

Yasir, who played for Brisbane Heat last year, said he has improved his googly because it was “a bit weak”.

“I've been working on that. I think I'm 70-80 per cent there with the googly and that's going to come in handy here.”

He said he was constantly analysing his bowling and always on the lookout for new techniques.

“I do look over those videos from YouTube quite a bit,” he said. "I look at how I went in those matches, analysing how it has gone and try to replicate my good deliveries."

https://www.dawn.com/news/1437229/yasir-shah-targets-20-australian-scalps-series-win-in-uae
 
Easy peasy with this Aussie line up. Smith could have been a thorn but he is missing. Yasir should target Kumble's 10/74 :yasir.
 
Hopefully he doesn’t bowl 50 overs an innings for it. Max he should bowl is 25.
 
I’m really worried about the unhealthy expectations and reliance that have been placed on Yasir to win this series It seems it’s yasir or bust

Not a great strategy tbh
 
With the amount of overs he is going to bowl he should be expecting himself to pick up wickets.
 
He will pick up 4/5 wickets per innings anyway bowling 35+ overs in an innings. Hopefully he does better and gets 6/7 wickets in less than 25 overs. That would be sensational.
 
Hoping Yasir is going to pick up 20 wickets isn’t a good hope. It’s also hoping that our new ball bowlers to be wciektless because Yasir comes in the middle overs.
 
Yasir is perfectly capable of pulling it off. With bilal and hafeez, he will be doubly more dangerous.
 
It's like he's making a bear trap only for him to get caught in it. I will happily eat my words if he proves right.
 
He's bowled some garbage out there so far. A few good deliveries mixed in with some freebies.

Definitely not at his best so far.
 
Seems to be trying to hard in this inns so far and has almost expected the Aussie batsmen to gift him wickets, also almost 1 bad ball and over has meant hes created no pressure with ball in this inns.
 
Bilal Asif reaping rewards at the other end. Team matters not individual
 
This is Yasir Shah's 13th Test match in UAE where he has taken 79 wickets. It's the first time he has been wicketless in a Test innings in UAE.
 
Well he will have to take 20 out of the remaining 30 now to achieve his target. Did not bowl consistently well in that first innings.
 
Hasn’t been the same bowler since Mushy left as spin bowling coach. He’s lost without him.
 
So, maybe he should have said: "Hopefully I won't get hit for 6 sixers and may get 1 wicket" :facepalm:

Some people, man...
 
Cut him some slack!
He set a target for himself - does not mean he will be able to meet it always. It is just to motivate himself to work hard in field.
Many people do it in all walks of life.
 
20 wicket comments is just naive, guy is not smart enough about how to sugar coat his mind. I am sure, every player sets a target for himself before a Series or tournament, but hardly anyone comes to draw attention towards him by saying - I wish to hit a hundred or take a 5for in WC Final, or I have set a target for 500 runs/35 wickets in this series. Also, 20 wickets in 2 Tests means his other teams mates have to suffer a poor series with ball - for batsmen scoring a certain high amount of runs is possible, but if one bowler targets 50% of max 40 wickets available of a series, doesn't show his faith & trust for his bowling peers. May not be intentional, but indirectly guy is disclosing his lack of respect for his bowling partners.

However, PAK seriously need to look for a back-up specialist leggi for Test matches. Shadab is there, but I am a bit disappointed with his progress as a genuine Test match leggi; unless he develops a stock ball which he can control preciously, it'll be difficult for him to last long.

Not saying Yasir should be dropped for one poor Test, but he doesn't look completely fit and have lost some of his key weapons like drift and disguised fast flippers. In his first series he surprised few top Aussie batsmen with his fast flipper, but now looks like his flippers are landing a bit short. Never was a big turner, therefore if his control betrays him, he won't be effective much. Recent domestic form isn't encouraging either.
 
20 wicket comments is just naive, guy is not smart enough about how to sugar coat his mind. I am sure, every player sets a target for himself before a Series or tournament, but hardly anyone comes to draw attention towards him by saying - I wish to hit a hundred or take a 5for in WC Final, or I have set a target for 500 runs/35 wickets in this series. Also, 20 wickets in 2 Tests means his other teams mates have to suffer a poor series with ball - for batsmen scoring a certain high amount of runs is possible, but if one bowler targets 50% of max 40 wickets available of a series, doesn't show his faith & trust for his bowling peers. May not be intentional, but indirectly guy is disclosing his lack of respect for his bowling partners.

However, PAK seriously need to look for a back-up specialist leggi for Test matches. Shadab is there, but I am a bit disappointed with his progress as a genuine Test match leggi; unless he develops a stock ball which he can control preciously, it'll be difficult for him to last long.

Not saying Yasir should be dropped for one poor Test, but he doesn't look completely fit and have lost some of his key weapons like drift and disguised fast flippers. In his first series he surprised few top Aussie batsmen with his fast flipper, but now looks like his flippers are landing a bit short. Never was a big turner, therefore if his control betrays him, he won't be effective much. Recent domestic form isn't encouraging either.

If you don't reveal it, then there is less pressure and less motivation. I would not do it because that is quite risky. But for some, that's the way it goes.
 
If you don't reveal it, then there is less pressure and less motivation. I would not do it because that is quite risky. But for some, that's the way it goes.

Then, may be he deserved the criticism as well - should be ready to accept that as well.
 
It's like when parents tell their kids to achieve a certain target and they go around, all excited, telling everybody what's on their mind.
 
yasir ko jaldi se koi EA sports ya brian lara cricket ki CD dei do, shayad target poora hi jaye....
 
So just one wicket so far and looks as if not spinning ball either - nightmare return
 
I think its about time the PCB puts a restraining order to all Pakistani players to speak in front of the media unless they are the captain or vice captain.

A lot of these players from uneducated backgrounds are embarrasing us as a nation when they make tall claims such as we have the psychological edge or I will take 30 wickets in the series. Jokers
 
I dont understand why Pakisthan players put unnecessary pressure on themselves. This is not the first time
 
Where's the Yasir Shah haters at please come out of the hole now!

Clueless individuals who criticise at the first sign of trouble!
 
where are you haters???:asad2
Yasir is good enough to not allow Australia reach 335/8 on a fifth day pitch. He may win Pakistan the match here, but he has been below par and frankly the main reason we let a mediocre side like Australia stretch this game so far.
 
Where's the Yasir Shah haters at please come out of the hole now!

Clueless individuals who criticise at the first sign of trouble!

You serious or what? Australia has punched far above their weight due to Yasir's mediocre bowling in the whole match. They shouldn't have come close to drawing this test. This is a weakened Australia side without Warner and Smith, and Australia is minnow in SC even with those two.
 
typical fans.

Yasir Shah is bowling alone here.

I ahve been saying from day 1 that Bilal Asif isn't a proper spinner.

Yasir alone is doing the job here. Look at how he took 3 wickets in no time
 
You serious or what? Australia has punched far above their weight due to Yasir's mediocre bowling in the whole match. They shouldn't have come close to drawing this test. This is a weakened Australia side without Warner and Smith, and Australia is minnow in SC even with those two.

Weakened or not they have batted like lions and they should be commended for that.

You cannot pin this on Yasir on his own we have more than just one bowler. Just love it when people criticise and then gotta eat some humble pie because they get shut up.

Hey how about this get behind your team for the duration of the game once the games done pick holes rather than looking like FOOLS?
 
Should have played in the A game vs Aus, would have been good practice and he would have had some overs under his belt, hopefully improves in the next game...
 
He has got to find an answer for Khawajas reverse sweeps, Khawaja connected with each and every reverse sweep he attempted. That is down right insulting for a world class spinner.

The team management needs to work out field settings to shut down that shot
 
This man has lost it. He is beyond average now. Should be dropped and some other spinner like Asghar should be brought in.
 
He'll have to settle for eight in the series. However:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yasir Shah's bowling average against top six batsman in this series is 74.33. Only once has he had a worse series record against top-order players - he averaged 101.33 when he toured Australia in 2016. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PAKvAUS?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PAKvAUS</a></p>— The Cricket Prof. (@CricProf) <a href="https://twitter.com/CricProf/status/1053198497531523072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Hasn't bowled as well this series.

However he deserves the series against NZ before any drastic measures.
 
Pakistan should look for other spinners. This guy is in terminal decline.
 
Should keep his spot for the NZ series but if he disappoints then I don't think he should even be playing tests in Asia for any longer because unfortunately I sense a decline and that's coming from a Yasir fan.

After NZ we go SA and they aren't great against finger spin evident by their struggles against Moeen in home and away tests, so I would actually keep Bilal Asif because I feel he could unsettle their batsmen on those high bounce wickets.

Also I would replace Hafeez (with Shadab) because we know how much of a liability he is against quality pace bowling particularly outside Asia. If I remember correctly of all top order batsmen with a miniumum 20 tests (I think) he holds the second lowest average in Asia.

Yasir Shah and Mir Hamaz should be replaced by Amir and Shaheen.

XI for SA:

Fakhar
Azhar
Haris
Shafiq
Babar
Shadab
Sarfraz
B.Asif
Amir
Shaheen
Abbas
 
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