Pakistan vs England: Yasir Shah and Zulfiqar Babar - the spin twins ready to torment England

There is always a spinner lurking, ready to pounce. It is no different this time. The fears are real and there is no point pretending otherwise.

Those who have passed England’s way before, when they have confronted Pakistan away from home include Abdul Qadir, Danish Kaneria, Saeed Ajmal – all of them influential, the first and the third devastating. Now come Yasir Shah and Zulfiqar Babar. They pose a worrying twin threat that might have lain undiscovered had unfortunate circumstances not demanded action.

Yasir is a leg-spinner who has taken 61 wickets in 10 Test matches, Zulfiqar a slow left-armer who has 42 in 10. In the eight they have played together, Yasir has taken 47 wickets, Zulfiqar 36. For England it may be the stuff of desert nightmares.

Repelling Yasir alone will be difficult enough with the English batsman’s enduring lack of confidence against the leg-break and the assorted pitfalls that go with it.

The prospect of them being undone in a flurry of footwork, especially against Yasir as he drifts the ball in the air and produces artful leg-break or slider, is not pretty. If he poses a mystery that England struggle to solve, then Zulfiqar is lying in wait to capitalise on uncertainty exposed at the other end.

The threat posed by England with Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, is superficially less formidable but it will be fascinating to compare and contrast. England know they will have to play a waiting game, that scoring four runs an over in the next month is not a viable proposition. Somehow, this side with an image deliberately reshaped this past summer, must persuade themselves that it is possible to be positive without hitting the leather off the ball.

Pakistan’s spin duo have both had long and uncertain roads to the glittering triumphs of the past year. Yasir might not have been summoned to play for Pakistan but for two things. First, he played his domestic first-class cricket for Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (no messing about here with slipping in sponsors’ names by the back door) alongside the Pakistan captain, Misbah ul-Haq. Secondly, a vacancy for a spinner arose when Saeed Ajmal was banned from bowling his doosra.

Yasir is a cousin of Fawad Ahmed, a fellow leg-spinner who emigrated to Australia and was on last summer’s Ashes tour. They were brought up near each other and played together in the northern town of Swabi before their paths diverged and Yasir left for Peshawar and then Lahore.His career stalled slightly after he made his first-class debut at the age of 15 and it took another five years in which time he dropped down to second grade cricket before he established himself.

“It was clear to me that I needed to improve the standard of my bowling and I quickly came to the conclusion that I needed to work on it,” Yasir told the website PakPassion.net last month. “My move into first-class cricket was a measured and a step-by-step approach. It may have appeared slow to others but there was a process to this.”

Another four years went by before he made his maiden one-day international appearance for Pakistan, another three after that when Saeed was fingered by the authorities. Briefly, Pakistan were in a fit of self-righteous turmoil wondering where to go and who to go to. Misbah knew the answer.

Yasir’s first Test was against Australia in Dubai. He was 28, he was by his own admission a bundle of nerves. Australia knew it. “I was feeling very unsure and flustered in the first few overs as I felt that I was bowling against the very best,” Yasir recalled.

“I was being hit about a bit initially but then our coaches Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmed told me that they were only attacking me because they were afraid of my bowling.”

He took 3 for 66 (his first wicket was that of Steve Smith, his second David Warner with a gem that drifted, gripped and turned in brutally late) and 4 for 50, following it up with 2 for 47 and 3 for 44 in the next match.

The wickets have come in their droves since, with four five wicket hauls and a reputation for accuracy and variation, a potent combination in any bowler and rarely found in a leg-spinner. He has been saddled, poor lad, with the burden of reviving the craft at the top level.

Pakistan’s bowling coach, Mushtaq said: “It’s too early to say that he can become the best. Going ahead from here I think it is important for him to be consistent and if he manages to play with the same attitude for another five years, he can easy go on and play 10 years from here.

“He has to bowl in different conditions and pitches around the world to get listed among the best and that is what would be a real test for him.”

Although Yasir has garnered most of the plaudits, the presence of Zulfiqar at the other end should not be overlooked. Zulfiqar was almost 35 when he made his Test debut, the third oldest for Pakistan with the two older all having started not long after the country was still finding its Test feet 60 years ago.

He has scarcely been less productive with his tight line and clever slider. Running through Australia and New Zealand late last year, he has had less reward since but Zulfiqar appears to have a composure that will serve him well.

“Being in form is nothing but a phase when you are applying yourself in a proper way,” he said. “There are technical things involved and being human, you can’t be consistent all the time. One bad day can distract you and you suddenly lose all confidence. You need time and I don’t have it. What is important is how we move on either with the regrets – which will only push you back – or with the intention of improvement.

“A player is good only when he keeps his mind clear and maintains the serenity within himself and buries the sense of regret in the field.”

England may need some of that quality starting on Tuesday..