Yasir misses Abbas as Pakistan toil hard in first Test

Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah has admitted that the Men in Green’s bowling attack is missing their ace seamer Mohammad Abbas in the ongoing first Test against Australia at the Gabba, Brisbane.

While speaking at the press conference after the end of second day’s play, Yasir said that it was the team management’s call to leave out Abbas from the playing XI.

“Yes, we miss Abbas as he did well in the last series against Austalia,” said Yasir. “It is the team’s decision to drop Abbas and they decided that these three [Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Imran Khan] are playing.”

The 33-year-old believes the pressure of playing his first Test got to the 16-year-old pacer Naseem Shah.

 “He is only 16 and all the eyes were on him so he maybe took a little pressure because of the expectations and the fact that he was playing Australia at the Gabba,” he said. “We tried to encourage him after the no-ball deprived him of his debut wicket.”

 “It was disappointing as David Warner played well and went onto make a hundred,” he added.

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Yasir took the sole wicket for Pakistan on the second day, when opener Joe Burns sweeped the leg-spinner onto his stump while being only three short of his century.

The leg-spinner also defended right-arm pacer Imran Khan’s performance and said that it is difficult for a bowler to perform straightaway in his comeback match.