The 31-year-old is keen to move to Old Trafford after Middlesex surprisingly failed to offer him a new contract at Lord’s.
Although Lancashire have not been in touch with Shah, who has played six Tests for England and 71 one-day internationals, they need to strengthen a top order which has struggled for runs in the County Championship again this season.
“Owais would like to join Lancashire,” said his agent John Barnett. “They are one of the supreme clubs in the country.
“A couple of counties have already been in touch, but we want to wait and look at every option.
“Lancashire haven’t been in contact but if they did Owais would be very keen to talk to them.”
Essex and Warwickshire have been linked with Shah, who has scored 37 centuries in his 199 first-class matches.
Not for the first time this season, Lancashire’s lower order turned things around for the Red Rose as they took firm control of their LV= County Championship First Division clash with Hampshire at Liverpool.
After losing three wickets in a tough opening session of day two during which just 40 runs were scored, blistering partnerships of 75 between Gareth Cross (44) and Tom Smith (31) and 89 between Kyle Hogg and Sajid Mahmood saw Lancashire post 398 for their first innings.
Hampshire resume this morning on 15-0 in their second innings, still trailing by 223. But at one point it looked as if Lancashire’s lead would be restricted to double figures as Mark Chilton (48), Steven Croft and Shivnarine Chanderpaul all fell with just 20 runs added to their overnight 124-2 as Dominic Cork, James Tomlinson and Chris Wood bowled superbly before lunch.
In fact, only two runs were added in the first eight overs of the day.
Cross and Smith broke the shackles in the afternoon session, before Mahmood (47) and Hogg (81) took the game away from Hampshire with some powerful hitting, scoring at more than six an over.
“We needed to get a good partnership together,” said Hogg, who also shared a 54-run stand with Gary Keedy for the last wicket. “Me and Saj put on a few runs, and with Keeds at the end we frustrated them.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen just 40 runs scored in the first session. Corky and Tomlinson bowled really well but we just ground them down in the end.”
Hogg is certainly on a roll. After his last-over heroics in Monday’s dramatic CB40 victory over Unicorns at Colwyn Bay, he claimed four wickets in the first innings here.
And with skipper Glen Chapple unlikely to bowl again in the game after injuring his calf, he is up for the challenge of guiding Lancs to what would be their fifth Championship win of the campaign.
“Winning a game in the way I did on Monday gives me confidence,” said the 27-year-old. “It’s always good to be able to get some wickets and follow it up by getting some runs as well.
“For me it’s usually a case of doing one or the other, so it’s good to be able to get both in the same game.”
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Could certainly do with someone like him at the top of the order - too often we're 4 or 5 down with less than a 100 on the board. Also need another proven wicket taker to replace Chapple when he finally bows out. Been some good breakthroughs this season though - Smith, Cross, Brown - and nice to see Chilton getting some runs as well.
sign him up sign him up
Owais Shah is precisely the type of quality batsman we need. If we also land Sidebottom we would then need only two more quality players (assuming we sign a good overseas batsman) to be a serious threat, especially as there are no truly great county sides around any more.
He is desperately needed. Top order is too inconsistent
If the blurb from his agent is true (and not MEN putting available players' names and Lancs in the same sentence, like it does with United), then they should waste no time, as this guy is quality; and he's had a raw deal from the England selectors, so wouldn't get called up again. Our young batsmen are not as good as our bowlers, and the top order is very brittle. We have been a batsman light all summer, and the ones we have, have rarely all fired at the same time. Shah would be consistently reliable in the way Ramprakash, Benkenstein, McGrath and Trescothick are for their counties, and he'd give Horton, Moore and Brown breathing space to develop into the talent they promise to be.