LONDON: According to International Cricket Council (ICC) new test rankings, Pakistani leg-spinner Yasir Shah has climbed up to the top world bowlers.
Shah, 30, the Pakistan leg-spinner who took a 10-for at Lord’s to lead his team to a famous victory over England at Lords, been crowned as International Cricket Council’s (ICC) new world number one ranked Test bowler.
He displaced James Anderson, who could not play the first Test due to a shoulder injury.
Yasir has 86 wickets from 13 Tests and is within touching distance of breaking a 120-year old record – the fastest to 100 Test wickets. George Lohmann, the England fast bowler, had reached the mark in 16 Tests in 1896.
Yasir had been ranked No. 4 before the start of the series, but a compelling display on a day two pitch offering no turn and remarkable exploitation of a wearing pitch and worried batsmen on day four pushed him up three places. His 6 for 72 in the first innings and 4 for 69 in the second made him the first legspinner ever to claim a 10-for at Lord’s. Among his wickets was a vicious legbreak that pitched a considerable distance outside Gary Ballance’s off stump and turned square to knock his leg stump out.
Shah’s 10-141 was the best-ever performance by a Pakistani bowler in his maiden Test on English soil, and the best by a Pakistani spinner in England, beating Abdul Qadir’s 10-211 at the Oval in 1987.
On Sunday, the Swabi-born bowled Jonny Bairstow for 48 as he ended the England anchorman’s more than three hours of resistance.
Bairstow’s exit proved the telling blow, with England losing their last four wickets for 12 runs as they were dismissed for 207 in pursuit of a victory target of 283.
