Nasser Hussain feels England should treat Yasir Shah as Kumble and not Warne

Former England captain Nasser Hussain feels that the English batsmen should treat Pakistan’s Yasir Shah in the first innings of a Test match as former Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble, rather than Aussie legend Shane Warne.

“For some reason, whether it is Joe Root or Ollie Pope, England have been going back to the leg spinner and getting stuck on the crease. They are playing him as if he were Shane Warne but, in the first innings of a Test, they should play him more like Anil Kumble,” Hussain wrote in his column for The Daily Mail.

Hussain, who is now a broadcaster cum commentator, reasoned that Pakistan leggie Shah is more reliant on varying his pace rather than giving more revolutions to the ball and extracting spin off the surface. The 34-year-old does not bowl deliveries which turn extraordinarily on the opening day of a Test. Instead, he bowls slow and tosses the deliveries up, before suddenly sending down a quicker, straighter one.

Yasir Shah will help prepare for subcontinental wickets: Hussain

England v Pakistan: Day 1 - Third Test #RaiseTheBat Series

While ‘Jumbo’, as Kumble was commonly known, used to make his leg spin deliveries skid along the surface at a rapid pace, Warne was more about rips, turns and tossing the ball up.

“England have a winter of Test cricket in sub-continental conditions coming up against Sri Lanka and India, if those tours go ahead, they must learn from how they are playing Yasir Shah here,” Hussain wrote.

England, though, have played Yasir Shah comparatively well as they dominated Day 1, finishing with a score of 332 runs for the loss of 4 wickets. Zac Crawley (171*) and Jos Buttler (91*) have put on 205 runs for the fifth wicket. Yasir Shah is the leading wicket-taker in the series with11 scalps to his name at a strike rate of 47.4.