Shane Warne slams Yasir Shah for resorting to defensive tactics in Brisbane Test

Iconic Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne has criticised Yasir Shah’s performance in the day-night series opener in Brisbane. The ‘King of Spin’ lashed out at the 30-year old’s defensive tactics and wondered why he was not able to learn from the first innings.

Warne, part of Channel Nine’s commentary panel for the series, is Yasir’s role-model and has frequently praised him in the recent past. In fact, he had even called the Pakistani as the best spinner in the world.

With Australia searching for quick runs in order to hasten their declaration, Yasir as well as the other bowlers came under the firing line. Naturally, he tried to stem the damage by adopting a defensive line. But, a frustrated Warne disagreed with those tactics and chastised the leg-spinner for not having any proper plan to get left-handers out.

The Victorian claimed, “When you play in a new country where you haven't played and you want to learn how to bowl there, you've got to learn from the first innings. Yasir Shah bowled 40-odd overs, took a couple of wickets, bowled better than that. But he's started exactly the same way to the left-handers (in the second innings). He's got a 6-3 field on the on-side and he's bowling outside leg stump to the left-handers. I just can't believe that.”

He explained, “We saw Nathan Lyon turn and bounce the ball, too, so Yasir Shah would have thought, 'Ok, the question I need to ask myself, how am I getting left-handers out?’. Bowled, LBW, bat-pad, caught slip – you're not going to get that if you're bowling a foot outside leg stump. I just can't believe he hasn't learnt that from the first innings. It's really disappointing because he's a smart cricketer. He's the best spin bowler in the world at the moment and he's just not learning quick enough.”

In the first-innings, Yasir bowled a whopping 43.1 overs and picked up two wickets for 129 runs as Australia surged to 429. After Pakistan suffered a catastrophic middle-order collapse and were bowled out for 142, the hosts did not choose to enforce the follow-on. Riding on Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith’s half-centuries, they cruised to 202 from 39 overs in the second innings before declaring.

From 10 overs, Yasir conceded 45 runs with the solitary wicket of Smith who had been pursuing the aggressive route. Even though such defensive tactics are quite common in the game, Warne chose to see it differently.

He lamented, “To use him in a defensive manner, sure there's a time and place for that. But right now when you're trying to get back into the game, the only way you can do that is take these wickets. Who's coming up with these plans? Is it the captain, is it the bowler? You've got to ask the question because it just doesn't make any sense.”