DUBAI - Legendary Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne on Tuesday said he would like to train with fast-rising Pakistan spinner Yasir Shah in the nets, a wish Pakistan management welcomed.
Warne, on a promotional tour to United Arab Emirates (UAE), said he believes Shah is a world class bowler.
"If I could find some time this week, I would love to go down and have a bowl with Yasir, because I am trying to prepare for the Cricket All Stars next week as well," Warne told UAE daily The National.
Himself a great of the game who took 708 Test wickets -- second only to Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan -- Warne is a great admirer of Pakistan's Shah. Shah, who took eight wickets to help Pakistan win the Dubai Test against England in Dubai on Tuesday, started bowling leg-breaks after watching Warne on television.
Warne met Shah in Adelaide during the World Cup earlier this year and passed on some useful tips to the Pakistani spinner. Warne and Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar are organising three Twenty20 matches for veteran cricketers in United States next month.
The Australian spinner said he is keen to have nets before the matches in USA. "I am trying to get as much practice in as I can. I might not be that welcome down in the England camp, so I might have to try the Pakistan camp to have a bowl," he said.
Warne, who was in Dubai to launch the Icons of Cricket golf event, was flying as Yasir took four wickets, including the last one of Adil Rashid with just 6.3 overs remaining, to clinch the second Test but had seen enough to be further impressed, although he did have some words of advice.
"I think he's a fantastic, wonderful bowler," Warne said. "Sometimes, from what I've seen, he looks a bit impatient - he has all the toys, he just needs to slow down a little bit, take a breath. Just chill out and set a batsman up a little bit more rather than just ripping legbreaks, wrong 'uns, straight ones, going around the wicket, over the wicket. He just needs to toil away a little more."
Pakistan team manager Intikhab Alam welcomed Warne's reported request. "No one has approached us as yet," Alam told AFP. "But if someone does then Warne is welcome because it’s a common practice that greats pass tips to youngsters and it will be a kind gesture." Pakistan lead the three-match series 1-0 with the final match in Sharjah from Saturday.
Warne also had further words of encouragement for Rashid who claimed just 2 for 191 in Dubai after almost conjuring a remarkable victory for England in Abu Dhabi with 5 for 64 in the second innings.
"They are completely different bowlers, Yasir is a real hustle-and-bustle legspinner, to me he's the best in international cricket at the moment, and Rashid will hopefully get better. He's not as fluent as someone like Yasir, but that doesn't mean he's not as effective. If he gets his confidence up I think he can be a real handful."
Rashid has twice been thrust into bowling first with Alastair Cook losing both tosses so far and Warne said that the role was something even he had to learn during his career.
"I ended up doing it a lot," he said. "I had to learn, it's all the subtleties of a legspinner, patience, changing position on the crease, not bowling the same ball twice, don't attack too much with the field, basically try to tie up an end - especially here where it's so hot, so the quicks can rotate. It's about trying to beat them in flight, get them driving. My line would change a bit, you'd go a bit wider, then you'd use the faster, straighter one as a major weapon. But the hard spun legbreak is the real key and you just had to try that as much as you could. That was basically it for the first two days."