Yasir Shah to 200 wickets: A prediction made by his idol Shane Warne 4 years ago

It is the tale of a shiny evening at the Dubai Cricket Stadium.

The home team was striving hard to strengthen their grip against mighty Australia.

Defending a gigantic total of 438, there was a very slight sense of worry but you knew how quickly things could turn around in this beautiful sport, particularly when we assume about the fight back spirit of the quality Australian side.

It was a fact that when a player of Michael Clarke’s caliber gets going, the fielding side couldn’t get an opportunity to sniff around conveniently.

The captain Misbah ul Haq lend ball to 28-year old Yasir Shah, who was making his making debut in the purest form of the game. At that very moment, the eyes of the leg-spinner, gave an impression of his hunger to carry the legacy of his cricketing ancestors.

Yasir clutched the ball as if he were carrying an aim of bringing a smile on the face his idol, Shane Warne, who defined the art every leggie desires to display.

Yasir bowled the beautiful slider that deceived the Clarke’s approach of defending comfortably with the straight bat. The ball was struck onto the pads and the umpire raised his finger on the appeal. Australian captain reviewed the decision straight away.

At first glimpse, it looked the ball had clipped the bat first before touching the pad. The replay confirmed that the bat missed the ball by a little distance. Finally, the hawk-eye informed about the departure of Clarke as the soothing plumb was confirmed on the screen.

Michael Clarke, who was known as one of the smartest players of spin bowling, returned to pavilion due to the brilliance of a rookie leg-spinner.

Australia sent nightwatchman Nathan Lyon to save their specialist batsmen from the last phase of day’s play. Lyon failed to survive the critical circumstances as he was another LBW victim of newcomer Yasir, who was bowling as confidently and energetically as if he were already up to lead this bowling line-up from the front.

The performance of Pakistan in the latter part of the fourth day was good enough to almost confirm their victory on the fifth day.

They later won the game by 221 runs on fifth day of the Test match.

A few days later, the thing that became a center of attraction, was the tweet of the legendary Shane Warne, who praised Yasir Shah for his sublime display of wrist spin bowling.

Shane Warne also predicted in his tweet that Yasir Shah is going to take 200-plus wickets but he would have never known, the tally of Yasir’s 200 wickets will be in the record books, as he is the fastest bowler to achieve this feat.

I’m liking my man Yasir Shah’s energy & shape on the ball, also his over spinner & patience !! He’s going to take 200 + test wickets 👍

— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) November 2, 2014

Getting praised by the master of his profession, who’s his idol according to him, would be listed as one of his ultimate achievements in his cricketing resume.

Various belonging to the same profession came on the scene but couldn’t emerge due to grasping factor of a low temperament while entering the platform of international cricket.

They grew up playing in Twenty20 cricket dominated era that restricted them from being enlightened about a blend of smart mind and capabilities, which is required to excel in the real form of the game. It seems Yasir Shah has been demonstrating the need of that blend in his journey to 200 Test wickets.

He might have got hundreds of regrets, one of those could be his involvement in a doping scandal at the peak of his career and one could be his inability of becoming a standout performer for his national team in the limited-over cricket.

But perhaps, there would be a chunk of satisfaction in a part of his heart, the satisfaction of playing a major role in the Test match triumphs of his national team happened in this decade.