The Yasir Shah of yesteryear

[ManFan]

When Yasir Shah burst onto the scene in that famous UAE series against Australia, I fell in love at the first sight of the bubbly Pathan. His leg-spinning action was quick, bouncy, and accurate. He had a vicious turner and no matter how many wickets he took or runs he conceded, he always had a smile on his face.

When he faced Sri Lanka in the summer of 2015, he was astonishing. He took 24 wickets in three matches at an average of 20. Before the series, everybody was wondering how would Yasir fare against the spin playing maestro Sangakarra. Yasir simply decided to bounce the virtuoso out three times in four innings and announced himself on the world stage.

Following a two match and 15 wicket series against England in the fall of 2015 in the UAE, Yasir had a long rest before the highly anticipated tour of England in the summer of 2016. Yasir, in his first test outside Asia, blew the English batsmen away with 10 wickets. However, something was wrong. Terribly wrong in fact. Gone was the jump and bounce in his action and extravagant spin. It was replaced by slow, straight, and sloppy balls that caught batsmen playing for turn. The little turn Yasir still had was just enough to cause doubt in batsmen's minds. Yasir took 19 wickets but 15 of them came in the 1st Test and 4th Test's second innings.

Yasir took 21 wickets against the West Indies in the UAE in 3 Tests but gone was the magic of old. It was replaced by dejected and formulated bowling that reeked of a lack of imagination. Add to that a bizzare leg-stump line in Australia and I began to wonder was Yasir declining. Yasir simply seemed to not have a mind of his own going as far as taking responsibility for the negative bowling tactics on himself and defending his captain. Whenever his mentor Mushtaq was not around, Yasir seemed like a child lost in the mall without his parent's supervision. And although Yasir took 25 wickets against the West Indies in the West Indies in the spring of 2017, he never seemed to have that same spark as he once did when he debuted.

Hopefully Yasir can stay afloat but with age and fitness against him, it might be too much too ask. Maybe he can turn it around but if there's one thing for sure about Yasir Shah's bowling, it's that he will have that smile, yes that Yasir Shah smile of his, because he is doing what he simply loves to do so.

 

[Sarwar89]

What a load of tosh OP has written. The guy clean bowled Shannon Gabriel in arguably one of the most tense matches in Test cricket and handed Pakistan its first Test series win in West indies, something Saqlain failed to do in 2000 after choked and couldnt run out Walsh. Yasir Shah needs only 51 wickets in 9 Test matches to be the quickest to reach 200 Test wickets in Human cricket history. Last week he took 8 wickets in a county Test match for Kent plus scored some valuable runs as well.

 

[ManFan]

The point of the post was to say that Yasir needs to turn the ball more and get back his bounce. Something that's been missing in his bowling for quite some time now.

 

[Sarwar89]

He is winning you matches, so stop complaining. Aik to i do not understand Pakistani awam, if players are performing, they complain and if they are not performing they still complain. Yasir Messi is the 2nd quickest bowler to take 100 test wickets and most probably will be the quickest to 200 test wickets. What else ppl want. I watched him closely playing for Kent, on non spin friendly wicket he took 8 wickets in a test match.

 

[ManFan]

When did I complain? I have always supported Yasir since his debut. He won us the series in the West Indies. Is there any other bowler who took as many wickets both home and away as he did? However I see his bowling in a decline. You must have foresight and I would be gladly proven wrong because unlike a few posters here, my ego does not get in the way of my support for the team.

 

[Zaz]

Hes never been a big turner of the ball in the first place

His strengths have always been bowling stump to stump with accuracy

 

[ManFan]

True but he has been bowling flatter and quicker. And although that's worked against teams weak against spin, stronger teams will not let you get away with it.

 

[Hawkeye]

[MENTION=143937]ManFan[/MENTION] a lot of your points are correct, but be prepared to also receive some hate comments from the guy's fans.

He started off very well and obviously he's still not bad, but not as effective and needs a good turning pitch.

 

[ManFan]

I am his biggest fan and will continue to be so. Pointing out his mistakes to make him a better bowler is not complaining or hating. Sadly some people mistake it as such.

 

[Syed1]

Yasir Shah took 8 wickets in Pakistan's last test.

 

[ahmedwaqas92]

Yasir Shah took 8 wickets in Pakistan's last test.

What are you doing bro ?? why are you bringing inconvenient facts into the conversation ??

 

[Xoib]

I agree with OP windies bashing has once again hidden Yasir shortcomings.He is not the same bowler since the last sri lanka tour and those who say he never spun the ball a lot check out his dismissal of Warner on debut.

 

[kaifmazhar]

I agree to the post partially. While Yasir does finds a way to sneak wickets every now and then through his inherent talent but of late he seems to be a little inconsistent during the course of the match. In patches he goes clueless and just can't break through allowing the opposition some easy runs and somewhere along that listless phase he would find a moment of genius to crack through. To be fair to the guy many a times he doesn't get any support from the other end which may have its effect on him.

 

[Mamoon]

He got brutally exposed overseas, and as a leggie, he cannot stem the flow of runs when there is no assistance in this pitch. This is where someone like Ashwin has the wood over him, who will never get obliterated like the former was in Australia. Yes he did well in two Tests in England on favorable surfaces like Lord's and The Oval where the English batsmen played him poorly, but he was awful at Old Trafford and Edgbaston.

Any half-decent spinner will take wickets on Caribbean pitches against Caribbean batsmen, his shortcomings and weaknesses stay put. It's important for Pakistan to keep Shadab in the Test squad because Yasir is 30+ and overweight. In addition, Pakistani spinners have always failed the longevity test. He may need replacing sooner than we think.

So to summarize, a decent bowler but heavily overrated on PP. His current ranking is a fair reflection of his ability and skills. He is not one of the top bowlers in the world.

Furthermore, although Warne is a big fan and he enjoys tremendous authority on the art of leg-spin, but his words would have been more worthy if he wouldn't have been in love with every leg-spinner and his dog.

Pakistan are better off not playing him away from Asia and the Caribbean, better to go with an all-rounder who will not bowl worse but will contribute more with the bat.

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

He has w.on us tests overseas. He is an attacking leg spinner who gets wickets. Due to his variations he is capable of taking wickets on the first day! He is not like Ashwin who is a modern-BCCI-heavily-doctored-tracks-bully (as Harbhajan said).
On his day YS is an authentic match-winner

Won us our maiden test series in WI. Spinners hit their peak after 30+, so I expect him to win us many games under attacking captaincy of our new Kaptaan. He is athletic and very active in field (unlike some skinny-fat offie from other side of border ) )

An ATG in making and will shut many mouths as his careers hit new highs.

Warne has better cricketing eye than chinese-water-sofa-experts.

He will win us many games, Insha'Allah.

 

[j_kazmi]

OP is not attacking Yasir so I don't know why people are getting offended.

All he's saying that his bowling has changed since his first 10 or so tests whilst acknowledging that he's won us the last series.

Aren't we allowed to give these players constructive criticism.

 

[wrongun]

I think the county stint will do Yasir a world of good in learning to be effective in all conditions and how to squeeze wickets through pressure whilst bowling a containing role also. It really is a great "finishing school" for test players.

He is a marvellous bowler, the best leggie since Warne by far. Worth noting that Warne himself changed his bowling style during his career and had his ups & downs, poor series, flat spots but found ways to be effective again even as age & injury caught up with him & he had to learn to bowl within limitations.

I'll back Yasir to have a few highlights & great series in him yet. He came relatively late to test cricket so he still has some learning & improvement in him too.

 

[Khan12]

He got brutally exposed overseas, and as a leggie, he cannot stem the flow of runs when there is no assistance in this pitch. This is where someone like Ashwin has the wood over him, who will never get obliterated like the former was in Australia. Yes he did well in two Tests in England on favorable surfaces like Lord's and The Oval where the English batsmen played him poorly, but he was awful at Old Trafford and Edgbaston.

Any half-decent spinner will take wickets on Caribbean pitches against Caribbean batsmen, his shortcomings and weaknesses stay put. It's important for Pakistan to keep Shadab in the Test squad because Yasir is 30+ and overweight. In addition, Pakistani spinners have always failed the longevity test. He may need replacing sooner than we think.

So to summarize, a decent bowler but heavily overrated on PP. His current ranking is a fair reflection of his ability and skills. He is not one of the top bowlers in the world.

Furthermore, although Warne is a big fan and he enjoys tremendous authority on the art of leg-spin, but his words would have been more worthy if he wouldn't have been in love with every leg-spinner and his dog.

Pakistan are better off not playing him away from Asia and the Caribbean, better to go with an all-rounder who will not bowl worse but will contribute more with the bat.

What I understand is that he is a rubbish bowler for who is lucky. We should discard him asap. We should hail ashwin as the greatest spinner. Honesty you come across such a bitter person when it comes to yasir shah.

 

[Mamoon]

What I understand is that he is a rubbish bowler for who is lucky. We should discard him asap. We should hail ashwin as the greatest spinner. Honesty you come across such a bitter person when it comes to yasir shah.

A rubbish bowler cannot take heaps of wickets in favorable conditions, but yes he's not top quality. I do prefer Ashwin to him, and that too without factoring in his batting, which completely kills of any comparison between the two.

As a batsman, Ashwin is only slightly inferior to Shafiq, who is supposed to be one of our mainstay batsmen. He is a potential ATG all-rounder in Tests.

So if all of this translates into "bitterness", well it's up to you how to interpret my statements.

 

[On_the_up]

Lets compare Ashwin's and Yasir's away records:

Yasir 16 31 859.0 127 2860 86 7/76 10/141 33.25 3.32 59.9 8 1
Ashwin 17 29 694.1 112 2227 67 7/83 10/160 33.23 3.20 62.1 5 1

Pretty similar, I am sure if Yasir had the turners Ashwin has played on in his home matches, his record would be just as good as Ashwin's too.

Yes he had a mare in Australia but he is not unique in that respect as far as foreign spinners are concerned. The field settings were horrible and gave no assistance, psychologically or otherwise to the bowler. Ashwin also averages 54+ in Australia.

 

[New Yorker]

He is winning you matches, so stop complaining. Aik to i do not understand Pakistani awam, if players are performing, they complain and if they are not performing they still complain. Yasir Messi is the 2nd quickest bowler to take 100 test wickets and most probably will be the quickest to 200 test wickets. What else ppl want. I watched him closely playing for Kent, on non spin friendly wicket he took 8 wickets in a test match.

I don't read this as a complain about Yasir but as an expression of concern and support by an otherwise very appreciative fan. And there is grounds for that concern. Azhar Mahmoud recounts taking Yasir aside afterward the Windies series and asking him if he was happy with his bowling. Yasir told him no.

The point is not that Yasir is failing, he is clearly still collecting heaps of wickets, and he can keep doing that, while failing to make a impact every now and the as happened in England.

But he is not as good as he has been and could again become.

I don't know if it's a lack of rip or the fact that he now gives away more runs, bowling one sloppy ball in over, as in Australia, whereas he had been metronymically precise in Sri Lanka. Hopefully Azhar will do more than just talk to him - he says he doesn't have time to work on technique with bowlers? and we will see Yasir back to his absolute best.

 

[Amir]

I don't think he ever fully recovered from his injury. I agree with Mamoon to a bit. He has lost some of his zip. It showed in the overseas tour.

I don't regard the West Indies tour as a big achievement, they are a terrible test team and we let them win two more tests than they should have.

 

[New Yorker]

A rubbish bowler cannot take heaps of wickets in favorable conditions, but yes he's not top quality. I do prefer Ashwin to him, and that too without factoring in his batting, which completely kills of any comparison between the two.

As a batsman, Ashwin is only slightly inferior to Shafiq, who is supposed to be one of our mainstay batsmen. He is a potential ATG all-rounder in Tests.

So if all of this translates into "bitterness", well it's up to you how to interpret my statements.

Very strained this doubling down on your past mistake. He's currently the best legspinner in the world,
the second fastest to 100 wickets ever, and looks good to break Grimmet's run to 200 as well, frankly,
if he can take a bit less than 5 wickets a Test from hereon, well below the rate he has been going at to
date. He's not perfect, could be better, and has been better, but if he's not top quality then perchance
only Grimmet is.

 

[Savak]

For one he needs to get fitter, probably needs to lose 10 kg. Secondly his workload needs better management and it will help if we had a reliable 5th bowler like Hafeez or an all rounder in the test squad because we can't have Yasir bowl 35-40 overs every day.

 

[GoUgandaCranes]

For one he needs to get fitter, probably needs to lose 10 kg. Secondly his workload needs better management and it will help if we had a reliable 5th bowler like Hafeez or an all rounder in the test squad because we can't have Yasir bowl 35-40 overs every day.

as much as i dislike hafeez, he was a very important cog in the test team and was bowling plenty of overs and was balancing the workload. 4 bowlers just aren't good enough in uae. too taxing for the bowlers

 

[The_Odd_One]

Lol at Yasir not a top test bowler in the world. He is easily one of 5 top bowlers in test cricket. Comparison with iconic Ashwin is a joke who has taken 75% of his wickets on turners at home. Yasir as a bowler has already achieved more than Ashwin in tests. Both are rubbish in ODIs.

 

[Xoib]

I don't think he ever fully recovered from his injury. I agree with Mamoon to a bit. He has lost some of his zip. It showed in the overseas tour.

I don't regard the West Indies tour as a big achievement, they are a terrible test team and we let them win two more tests than they should have.

Yeah nice post.Yasir has been missing the zip since the England UAE tour he is still getting the job done on responsive tracks against poor players of spin but is that all what we want from him?

 

[ManFan]

I think he had a back spasm or injury and that's why he missed the first test of that series. Pakistan almost lost the match so they hurried him in for the next test. We won the series and Yasir took 15 wickets in the two tests but he didn't get time to recover. I think
his back injury needs extended time to heal and he should be given a well-deserved rest because he is the most important member of our current test team. It's been largely Yasir or Bust for us since his debut which shows his importance and ability. For Pakistan Test Cricket's sake, they need to rest Yasir for 8 months to 1 year to allow him to fully recover. Absence from the game will make him hungrier for success and time to work on his fitness. He can also work on the technical decencies with his bowling if he feels anything is missing.

 

[Sachin136]

Lol at Yasir not a top test bowler in the world. He is easily one of 5 top bowlers in test cricket. Comparison with iconic Ashwin is a joke who has taken 75% of his wickets on turners at home. Yasir as a bowler has already achieved more than Ashwin in tests. Both are rubbish in ODIs.

If you don't follow Indian cricket, then I don't see why you feel qualified to comment on it.

 

[New Yorker]

Yeah nice post.Yasir has been missing the zip since the England UAE tour he is still getting the job done on responsive tracks against poor players of spin but is that all what we want from him?

On helpful pitches you could at least give him credit. He snared Cook's and Root's 3 times each in the England series. They are some of the best players of spin in the world.

 

[MoAamer]

he lacks variations and sometimes gets taken to the cleaners.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

He is a very good bowler who needs to improve on his consistency and the use of variations.

He was handled very negatively in Australia by Misbah which was a factor in him getting demolished there.

He isn't perfect but can improve.

 

[ManFan]

What upset me as a fan the most in Australia was Yasir taking responsibility for the leg-stump line. Everytime he bowled outside the off-stump, he posed a much bigger threat. We saw how Bumrah targeted Fakhar's leg-stump and how that ended up. But to be fair to Misbah, Yasir bowling a leg-stump line worked against Cook in the UAE on more than one occasion. So he probably thought that Yasir could do it again against a left-handed opener.