England want to measure up Yasir Shah: Trevor Bayliss

English head coach says his players want to test themselves against the best

England head coach Trevor Bayliss thinks his players want to take the Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah challenge head on as they want to test themselves against the best.

England were on their way to a surprising victory in the first Test when they needed only 25 more runs to go 1-0 up in the series when the umpires called it bad-light.

Pakistan captain Misbahul Haq and Waqar Younis were relieved to have run away with a draw while England captain Alastair Cook was all-praise for his team.

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"The way he's [Yasir] bowled over the last couple of years, he is obviously one of their main players," said Bayliss, quoted by Sky Sports.

"The boys want to be the best team in the world. That means you've got to play the best players and he is the best player. I'm sure these guys would like to test themselves against any of the best players and come out on top.

Bayliss added that England wanted to prove themselves as the better team in UAE.

"The 'beast' at this level, the egos are right up there - they want to play the best and show the best that they are better than them. I'm sure these guys will be looking forward to pitting themselves against the best,” said Bayliss.

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"Win, lose or draw, they will want to show him they can play him as well as any of these other players."

Earlier, Yasir said that he had prepared well for the first Test match as he read the slowness in the Abu Dhabi pitch but due to his back injury he couldn’t materialise his plans.

“I had worked very hard for the first Test after seeing the pitch in Abu Dhabi it was disappointing to miss out,” Yasir said on a local television channel, as quoted by NDTV.

I had worked hard for the first Test: Yasir Shah

“It was a slow track but it had something for the leg-spinners. I was prepared to push the ball through and focus on line and length for long spells in the test.”

Yasir, who has already bagged 61 wickets in just 10 outings since his debut last September, said that he was working on perfecting his googly.

“The googly is one delivery on which I have yet to get full mastery and I am working hard on it since it is a wicket taking delivery on such slow pitches,” he said.