Ben Stokes compares Yasir Shah to Shane Warne

Yasir Shah’s performance in the first Test at Lords has seen many come out full of praise for the 30-year old Pakistani leg spinner. Ben Stokes, the England all-rounder has been the latest to do so by stating that Yasir Shah is perhaps the best leg-spin bowler since Shane Warne owned the cricketing arena all those years ago. The first Test saw the 30-year old cement his place atop the Test rankings courtesy of his figures of 10-141.

Ben Stokes is expected to make a return to the fold in the second Test at Manchester with the likes of James Vince and Jake Ball underperforming.

“Their seam bowlers have all got very good skills. Wahab Riaz looked to work hard the other day when he got the ball to reverse and obviously Yasir Shah as well. He’s the best leg spinner I reckon since Shane Warne, so they are a very good team,” Stokes was quoted as saying by SkySports ahead of the second Test starting on Friday.

In spite of that, Stokes is confident that the Brits will put on a good competitive performance. “We will come to this Test match and know how he goes about bowling and we should be able to counter-act that. That’s just another thing we may have to try and adapt to. It’s a really big game. To keep the series alive and take confidence into the third Test, we have to win this game.”

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“That’s the first game I have played doing both parts of my game. I had been playing as a batsman two weeks prior to the game just gone against Lancs,” he added.

“It’s something I did need, not only to get used to bowling in match situations because you can never replicate that bowling in the nets, but it’s also a massive confidence boost as well,” Stokes concluded.