CAIRNS: Pakistan suffered a major setback on Tuesday after leg-spinner Yasir Shah picked up a back injury during a team practice session in Cairns where the visitors will play a three-day tour match against the Cricket Australia XI, starting on Thursday.

The star bowler is being treated by medical experts and has been advised to have two days rest, rendering him unavailable for the pink-ball warm-up match and meaning he will go into the Test series against Australia without any match practice.

“Yasir Shah got a back injury during bowling in a practice session. He is getting treatment from medical experts at Cairns,” said a press release from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). “He has been advised two day rest by the doctors and will not be able to participate in the warm up match going to be held in Cairns.”

In December 2015, he was also tested positive for taking diuretics and was handed a three month ban by ICC, leading to him missing a tour to New Zealand as well as the ICC World Twenty20 in India.

In May this year he was also ruled out of the training camp in Abbottabad due to a knee injury and at one stage was even unlikely to tour England, where Pakistan drew the four-Test series 2-2, with Yasir the standout Pakistan bowler, taking 19 wickets at 40.73 including a 10-wicket haul at Lord’s.

Yasir’s injury scare will surely result in a few sleepless nights in the Pakistan camp, as the visitors do not have any other specialist back up spinners in the 16-man squad.

The only other spin option in the team at the moment is all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz, who bowls left-arm spin and took just five wickets in the three Tests against West Indies this year.

Published in Dawn December 7th, 2016