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England know one other sluggish begin to a Test marketing campaign might show expensive as they go seeking a primary collection win over Pakistan in a decade. Wednesday sees a three-match contest get underway with the primary Test at Old Trafford. And whereas England can level to current collection victories over most of their rivals, their final such success in opposition to Pakistan was again in 2010. That marketing campaign, nonetheless, was overshadowed by a ‘spot-fixing’ scandal at Lord’s which led to bans and jail phrases for then Pakistan captain Salman Butt in addition to pacemen Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir.
England have misplaced the primary Test in eight of their final 10 collection — together with throughout final month’s 2-1 win over the West Indies that marked worldwide cricket’s return from the coronavirus lockdown.
It is a statistic they’re all nicely conscious of, with in-form England pacemen Chris Woakes admitting: “I’d love to be able to put my finger on it and I’m sure the management and the team would as well.
“It’s not coincidence however it’s virtually, it’s only a coincidence that we will maintain shedding that first Test match.
“But we want to put that right,” he added, with the eyes of the worldwide cricket group set to show to Manchester within the absence of some other main worldwide fixtures outdoors of England amid the pandemic.
Both of Pakistan’s previous two collection in England — 2016 and 2018 — led to attracts, which ought to encourage the vacationers this time regardless that they go into the primary Test on the again of simply a few intra-squad warm-up fixtures in comparison with their ‘match-hardened’ hosts.
‘Complete bowler’
“We’ve had good preparations and team bonding,” stated Pakistan coach Misbah-ul-Haq on Monday.
“Still we feel there is always a slight nervousness when you just play Test cricket after a long, long time (away),” he added forward of his facet’s first Test in six months.
Misbah accepted that how his batsmen coped with James Anderson and Stuart Broad — who now each have greater than 500 Test wickets every after Broad reached the landmark in opposition to the West Indies — would go a protracted approach to figuring out the end result of the collection.
But the previous Pakistan captain was additionally excited by a tempo assault that features the youthful promise of teenage rising star Naseem Shah in addition to the correct Mohammad Abbas,and towering left-armer Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Naseem has impressed Pakistan fast-bowling nice turned bowling Waqar Younis and Misbah a lot once they noticed him in motion in Lahore, the coach stated they’d no qualms about fast-tracking a “complete bowler” into Pakistan’s facet in Australia final yr.
Naseem turned the youngest bowler to take a Test hat-trick in opposition to Bangladesh in February and he confirmed a liking for English circumstances with 10 wickets within the two follow matches at Derby.
“He is one who could win a Test match on his own,” stated Misbah of Naseem.
Pakistan, nonetheless, might nonetheless deploy two spinners at Old Trafford in Yasir Shah and Shadab Khan.
The West Indies did not submit a single particular person century of their current collection. Pakistan will hope the likes of Abid Ali, the primary man to attain 100 on each Test and one-day worldwide debut, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali, Babar Asam and Asad Shafiq can present the runs they want.
Promoted
Meanwhile England should determine whether or not to stay with 4 quicks of their XI after Ben Stokes could not bowl within the West Indies decider due to a quad damage.
The star all-rounder was, nonetheless, reported to have bowled with good tempo within the nets on Monday.
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