Can he recapture the magic that once propelled Pakistan to Test dominance after a tumultuous year?
There was a time when Pakistan Test cricket seemed to rely almost entirely on series against Sri Lanka.
Between 2009 and 2015, the two sides played seven Test series, with Pakistan visiting Sri Lanka four times in six years to play 11 Tests. Only one player from each team remains from the squad that began that cycle in 2009.
For Sri Lanka, it’s Angelo Mathews, and for Pakistan, whatever the opposite of that is in Fawad Alam. While Fawad’s redemption story has already been written, another Pakistani player may be looking to write his own over the next two weeks. Even though he only played in the last game of those short series in Sri Lanka, his impact gave Pakistan a model for how to win short-term Tests.
Yasir Shah had only made his Test debut after Saeed Ajmal’s bowling-action issues, and he was only seven months into his international career. Sure, the run-up needed work, which Shane Warne assisted him with, and he needed to bowl slower to allow natural drift and spin to have their full impact, but there was something here to work with.
Even so, having him shoulder the responsibility of facing Sri Lanka on their home turf in a spin-bowling shootout seemed excessive. Despite Ajmal’s brilliance, there was a reason Pakistan had lost the previous three Test series in the island nation.
Yasir’s accomplishments were nothing short of historic. After taking seven, six, and five wickets in each Test, he would top the wicket charts with 24. Dhammika Prasad came in second with 14, and no other spinner reached double figures. Yasir’s bowling was responsible for nearly half of Sri Lanka’s 52 wickets.
Pakistan would go on to win their first series in Sri Lanka since 2006, and Misbah-ul-Pakistan Haq’s had the player to build their Test side around. Yasir’s accomplishments were nothing short of historic. After taking seven, six, and five wickets in each Test, he would top the wicket charts with 24. Dhammika Prasad came in second with 14, and no other spinner reached double figures.
Yasir’s bowling was responsible for nearly half of Sri Lanka’s 52 wickets. Pakistan would go on to win their first series in Sri Lanka since 2006, and Misbah-ul-Pakistan Haq’s had the player to build their Test side around.
And it wasn’t just Asia. Yasir would annihilate England with impressive hauls at Lord’s and The Oval, using both the one that went straight on and the one that spun prodigiously. A year later, it would be the West Indies in their own backyard who bore the brunt of this top-tier cricketer, with his final ball of the series cleaning up Shannon Gabriel to give Pakistan their only Test series win in the Caribbean.
Did he, in fact, do that?
Faith and timing play a role in the solution. Yasir was at his best when Pakistan figured out how to turn the UAE, their adopted home, into a fortress, and his game style was ideal for it. Misbah as captain provided him with a leader who could possibly watch his beard grow in real time without losing patience.
As a man who only became captain when he was 36 and on the verge of retiring, he was a firm believer in good things coming to those who wait. As a result, Yasir, a master of rhythm bowling, operated from one end to devastating effect, dishing out UAE drubbings like they were going out of style. In another epic series against New Zealand, he became the quickest man to 200 Test wickets, when a Dunedin-born Australian leg spinner named Clarrie Grimmett became something of a household name in Pakistan for a surreal week or so.
Remember, all of this happened in less than four years, and the unravelling began almost as quickly as it happened. Yasir’s most ardent supporter had withdrawn from the game, and Pakistan now had a no-nonsense fitness enthusiast as coach in Mickey Arthur.
Yasir was the first Pakistani he cited as an example of laxity in this department. In addition, series in South Africa and Australia followed. He was particularly unimpressive, missing games in both series. In fact, Yasir’s 20 wickets in the Southern Hemisphere have cost 87 runs each, with an economy rate of 4.37.
( Curtesy Espn Cricket)
