Manchester: England all-rounder Ben Stokes hailed Pakistan’s Yasir Shah today as the best leg-spinner since Australia great Shane Warne.

Shah bowled Pakistan to a 75-run win over England in the first Test at Lord’s last week with a brilliant match-haul of 10 for 141.

His return left Shah atop the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test bowler rankings and was all the more impressive as the pitch at Lord’s did not offer excessive turn.

That left Shah with 86 wickets in a mere 13 Tests at an average of 23, compared to Warne’s mammoth 708 in 145 Tests at just over 25 apiece in a career that ended in 2007.

Conditions could favour Shah far more at Old Trafford, where the second Test starts on Friday.

Stokes, who will hope to make his return to Test cricket at the Manchester ground after a knee injury, was in no doubt of Shah’s quality.

“Yasir Shah, I reckon, is the best leg-spinner since Shane Warne,” Stokes told an Old Trafford press conference broadcast on Sky Sports.

“They are a very good team but we go into the Test match knowing how he goes about bowling and we should be able to counteract that,” the Durham all-rounder added.