Warne welcomes Rashid's revival

Shane Warne has welcomed the prospect of two legspinners going head to head in the UAE next week, with Yasir Shah and Adil Rashid expected to line up for Pakistan and England respectively in the first Test in Abu Dhabi.

Yasir, who claimed eight wickets in a warm-up against England on their last tour of the UAE in 2011-12, is one of the principal threats to Alastair Cook's men on this tour. He has claimed 61 wickets in his ten Tests to date, including 24 at 19.33 in his most recent series against Sri Lanka in June and July.

Along the way he has surpassed a host of great compatriots - including his fellow leggies Abdul Qadir and Mushtaq Ahmed, not to mention Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Imran Khan - to become the fastest Pakistani bowler to reach 50 Test wickets.

Rashid, meanwhile, is expected to make his Test debut at the age of 27, six years on from his first England appearances in ODI and T20 cricket.

Some doubts still persist about his readiness - he was strangely overlooked for a debut on England's tour of the Caribbean in the spring, and withdrew himself from selection for the Lord's Test against Australia citing a sore finger. However, he has become a fixture of England's new-look one-day side this summer, and his spin partnership with Moeen Ali is expected to be a key aspect of England's Test strategy in the coming three matches.

"To see Rashid back in the side, I think England have done it pretty well," said Warne. "They haven't rushed him in. I would have liked to have seen him play in the West Indies before the Ashes, I think there was an opportunity there. But they've got him through the one-dayers, he's been around the group for a while and he seems to be bowling pretty well.

"It's great, I'm very excited for that. Yasir Shah's a wonderful legspinner too, I think he's probably the best going around at the moment. When you've got Yasir Shah and Rashid, two good legspinners playing, it's going to make for better cricket."

Warne said he was particularly looking forward to watching the manner in which Cook manages his legspinner - a somewhat loaded sentiment given his criticism of Cook's tactics as a captain in the past. However, he also offered to help Rashid's development should England come seeking his advice, just as he recalled Michael Vaughan doing during his playing days at Yorkshire.

"As a captain, Alastair Cook, it will be great to see how he handles a legspinner in Test matches," said Warne. "It's always fun as a captain to have a legspinner in your side. I think it's exciting for England to have that.

"I help a lot of spinners from all over the world, I've helped Danish Kaneria from Pakistan - in a series against England, actually - there's been lots of legspinners, or general spinners, that I've helped over the years and I'm more than happy to talk to anyone.

"I'd love to work with Adil Rashid if the opportunity arises. I had a chat in my last year of county cricket with Michael Vaughan at Yorkshire and he said 'Can you do us a favour and have a chat with Rashid?'

"He was pretty young then but I had a good chat with him. He's a pretty impressive kid, he's been on the scene for a while now and let's hope he grabs his opportunity because it would be great to see England having a legspinner."

Warne, whose attention is currently focused on his Cricket All-Stars venture in the USA, also recalled his own experience of the intense desert heat of the UAE - in particular Australia's Test series against Pakistan in 2002-03, which also took place in October and featured, in the second Test at Sharjah, some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded in an international fixture.

"Some of the things we made sure we did, the warm-ups - you're pretty warm as soon as you walk out of the changing room, so you don't need to have a fourth session in the morning," Warne said.

"We worked on the fact the spinners have a huge role to play. Because it was 53 degrees, we had drinks every 20 minutes - I think Clive Lloyd was the match referee - and the fast bowlers bowled one-over spells.

"[Glenn] McGrath bowled a couple of overs a few times. But it was really short, sharp - the new ball, you get three or four overs, if you can, out of your quicks, then after that it was couple of over spells, you keep rotating them around and the spinners had to bowl longer spells.

"It was really draining, very, very hard and the key as well, when you got in, you've got to stay in, because that can really wear down the opposition and you can score big in the last session. The last hour and a bit, you can nearly score 100 runs."

Warne also cautioned England to channel their new-found aggressive instincts, and not to mistake positive cricket for reckless all-out attack in such conditions.

"All this about aggressive play - aggressive play can also be about wearing down your opposition and letting the ball go well, to keep them out in the field for long periods of time. That can also be aggressive cricket, you don't have to score at four-five an over all day … It was all about not losing wickets early and if you got in you had to bat really big."