Michael Vaughan waxes lyrical about 'wonderful' Naseem Shah

England’s former cricketer Michael Vaughan waxed lyrical about the wonderful talent of Pakistan’s teenage pace sensation Naseem Shah, during a Cricbuzz interview on Thursday, after day two of the first Test between England and Pakistan at Old Trafford in Manchester.

The 17-year-old couldn’t take a wicket but impressed with his sheer pace. Vaughan believed he saw pace quicker than the legendary Fred Trueman along with an elegant action similar to the legendary Dennis Lillee.

“When you see bowlers like Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Abbas, it’s lovely. Particularly Naseem Shah, I am going to wax lyrical about him for weeks and weeks. He is Fred Trueman with a few more miles and hours on him. I know Fred’s looking from above and saying that he probably isn’t as fast but I reckon he is. He is quicker and he has a glorious action. His action is very similar to Dennis Lillee. He is a wonderful young bowler. When he is 17 years of age and crashing it into Rizwan at 89 and 90 miles per hour, we are in for a quality series ahead,” Vaughan said.

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“Ollie Pope and Naseem Shah are the future. I think they are going to have many battles in the future. We know that England are considering a tour to Pakistan in 2022. That would be great for the game and that combination of Shah versus Pope; we will be talking about for many series hopefully here in England and back in Pakistan,” he added.

The former cricketer criticised the tactics employed by England during the two days of the match while complementing the efforts of batsmen Shan Masood and Shadab Khan.

“I love watching Pakistan play cricket full stop. You are never quite sure what you are going to get but they played with great skill today. Shan Masood played the ball so late. The running between the wicket that Pakistan produced, especially in the partnership between Shadab Khan and Shan Masood, it frustrated England. England employed some strange tactical maneuvers as well like bowling off-spinner Dom Bess before the new ball and Shadab took advantage. Archer wasn’t used till late in the afternoon,” he said.

“I think that is high-class opening play because sometimes you just need to have the mentality to just stay there. The opportunity came because England didn’t bowl too well. The tactics weren’t quite right and that is what high-class players do, they realise the momentum shift they can produce individually and that is exactly what he did,” he concluded.