5 Lesser Known facts about Yasir Shah

Yasir Shah has captured the cricketing world’s imagination after his performance in the ongoing Lords test match. Here are 5 lesser known facts about Yasir Shah.

1) International cousins

Yasir Shah made his international debut in 2011 against Zimbabwe. However, earlier that year, one of his cousins had made waves on debut.

Junaid Khan, the left arm seamer, made his debut against West Indies as a 21 year old. Later that year, he made his test debut against Zimbabwe. On the same tour his older cousin, Yasir, made his limited overs bow.

Next year Junaid was even more impressive in both Tests and ODIs, as he enhanced his reputation as an extremely skilful swing and seam bowler, who was also pacy and accurate. In three Tests in Sri Lanka, he took 14 wickets at 21.78, twice taking five-fors and achieving an outstanding strike rate of 43 balls per wicket.

Fawad Ahmed, who played 3 ODIs and 2 T20 Internationals for Australia in 2013, is also a cousin of Yasir Shah. Fawad played ten first-class matches in Pakistan.

He fled to Australia in 2010 as an asylum seeker. While living in Pakistan’s northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ahmed had been involved with an NGO that aimed, among other things, to educate women, and he said this connection led to threats against him from extremists.

About the author

Sitam Chaki