England Vs Pakistan 1st test preview
on July 29th, 2010 at 5:05 amThe first test match between a rising England team and a resurgent Pakistan team will commence tommorrow at Trent Bridge.
England has already announced their team.
| AJ Strauss*, JM Anderson, TT Bresnan, SCJ Broad, PD Collingwood, AN Cook, ST Finn, EJG Morgan, KP Pietersen, MJ Prior†, GP Swann, IJL Trott |
Pakistan will probably go with the same combination which won the last test against Australia.
The war of words has already begun.
Paul Collingwood took a swipe at Pakistan’s much coveted pace trio and regarded it as over hyped, whereas Salman Butt said that his pace trio is the best in the world.
I am not sure if Pakistan’s pace trio is the best in the world but it is definitely damn good to send some tremors in the English camp, they have complete variety to exploit all sorts of conditions, the results do not do justice with the quality of these bowlers as they are often let down by their fielders and batsmen.
One thing Collingwood must realize that Pak bowlers don’t have to Stomp on the ball or use sticky lozenges to make the ball talk they only need a bit of overcast conditions and he has no control over that.
England has an advantage of home conditions they also have a better batting lineup, but if Pakistan’s pace trio remained fit and in form Pakistan will have a strong chance of winning against England but they can’t win without improving their batting.
Akmal brothers will have to lift their performance and will have to respect the test format and demonstrate that they can change their game to suit the format, Pakistan will have to decide very quickly about the role and psoition of Shoaib Malik in the team so far his contribution to the team has been nothing and he has been a complete burdon on the team, he will have to bat higher and perform to prove his worth and justify his selection.
Just heard the news that Shoaib Malik has injured his foot and is doubtful for tommorrows match, Malik has a habit of injuring his foot before every tough series, but I guess it’s a blessing in disguise for Pakistan.
Umar Amin deserves one more chance, Pakistan cannot win if four of their top batsmen fail consistently especially when they don’t have even a single bowling all rounder in their lineup that makes the depth of their batting looks really thin.
The inconsistency which is associated with Pakistan team is only because of their fragile batting their bowling has been pretty consistent they might have some worry about the form of Kaneria but they do have two quality spinners on the bench so they don’t have to worry much about that but they will have to make a decision about their middle order after the first match.
The Injury to Ian Bell and lack of match practice and form of Kevin Pieterson are the main worries for England, their bowling looks decent but a lot will depend on Swann’s performance.
Even though Pakistan performed well against Australia but this series will present different challenges, Australian bowlers failed to exploit the conditions in England but English bowlers won’t struggle in home conditions as a result this series will be more tough for Pakistan.
A positive start to this series will be very important for Salman Butt’s captaincy and this young Pak team, the win against Australia silenced the critics and all the hue and cry about the selection of Yousaf and Younis have died down , but one loss and those all those vultures will be back for the feast.
The win against Australia might have also raised the expectations of the fans but in reality this team especially the batting line up is too inexperienced to win consistently, England in my opinion is favorite to win this series.
Another disastrous day. Do any of your geniuses have anything to say? Shall we keep on playing new kids against England? I tell you why our batting is failing. The reason is because no one has the faith in their own players that they can bat. Hence everyone takes a lot of pressure, including the akmal brothers and end up playing like mother fuckers.
If we had two senior players who could just take some time – thats all – not score even a hundred – all we want is to take some time in the middle even if the run rate is 1 run per over. That will give some encouragement to our batting line up.
I have already written off this fucking test. They need to recall Younis and beg Yousuf to come back for the second test. Presently, our batting is even worse than Bangladesh.
I think something is bothering kaneria so he should be replaced with ajmal for the second test just to make him think.
Kamran Akmal needs to change his keeping goves. ALso he needs to follow the ball all the way until it makes contact with his gloves. WHat a fucking disaster- as if we didnt have enough problems already.
FUCKING IJAZ BUTT – WHEN WILL YOU RETIRE YOU MOTHER FUCKER
Yousaf
Yes somebody should bitch slap Akmal brothers.
But Asim Kamal and Khurram man they are history. Kamal although was a victim of injustice but he played his last significant innings 5-6 years ago, I don’t think now he has any thing left and to be fair Ejaz Butt or Afridi had nothing to do with the injustice done to him he unfortunately came around at time when Pakistan team’s middle order was star studded, Inzi, Yousaf, and Younis he didn’t had any place in the team although I think they still should have kept him around.
Khurram got his fair chances the guy is no better then those who are playing, he has no technique attempts cut shot on every single ball, it’s not fair to just remember him for one good innings.
I am fine with the rest of the team but Akmal brothers and Malik with the current performance they don’t deserve to be in the team.
I want someone to go to the akmal brothers and bitch slap both of them till they bleed through the nose.
We need to have a totally separate team for tests. The present batting lineup is just horrific. They should have Butt open with Khurram Manzoor (the same guy who played his guts out for us in AUS and we ignored him). 3 Younis Khan. 4 Yasir Hameed. 5 Mohammad Yousuf. 6. Kamran Akmal (sadly i dont know if we have a better keeper than him) 7: asim kamal (yes he is a fighter – i will never forget how he played against AUS in Dec2004) 8: Aamer 9) asif 10) Umar/Sami (i prefer sami for test matches as he is much quicker and can bat better also) 11) Kaneria/Ajmal (we should decide on the number of left handers in the opposing team).
Ijaz butt and afridi want youth in the team then why dont they respect the youth that performs? Asim Kamal played his heart out against an awesome AUS side in Australia (second innings of sydney test made 87) and just stood there and decided not to throw his wicket away cheaply. Similarly, Khurram Manzoor stood there like a rock this january in Hobart while everyone around him withered away. What do we do – ignore them. I have a feeling that both Umar amin and Azhar ali will be given the same treatment.
Once again I have to repeat: FUCKOFF IJAZ BUTT!!! this is my message to you. You are a fucking catastrophe you fucking parasite.
Stani
And if you include the few edges which dropped short of the slips then the total number of chances which slipped away can go upto 6-7.
Yes both brothers caused one poor decision regarding the review. They have contributed in a total negative way.
Yousaf
Ejaz Butt is deaf:))
what a fucking disaster. I beg you Ijaz Butt please bring Younis and Yousuf back. We need a little back bone to our batting. If you have better batsman then fine you dont need to bring them but you dont at the moment so eat humble pie and beg both Younis and Yousuf to come and join the team for the next test match.
155 is required to avoid follow on the way English bowlers are moving the ball Pakistan are going to find it tough to cross 200.
Yousaf
I completely agree, the umpiring has also been quite poor I don’t think akistan will score 350 none of the Pakistani bowlers used the bouncer Broad with his height will extract some bounce, their is variable bounce in the pitch the cracks are widening Kaneria never tried to use the cracks he was completely shit, it will be difficult for Pakistan to comeback in the match they don’t have the batting strength to do so, 350 or 450 is not a very huge score but for our batting it is like 500.
I cant believe Kamran Akmal for all the crap he went through in the Sydney test is doing it again. Also Kaneria with all the experience was bowling full tosses which was giving the england team gifted runs. I think we will be lucky to get England all out for less than 425. Against 425; we will be lucky to score 350. By the 3rd day this will be a real turning pitch, Kaneria better be in rythm by saturday because if England score more than 225 we will be left chasing north of 300; on a turning pitch we might as well forget about it.
I think our main strategy should be to take time. Choke the existing players to reduce run rate to 2 per over. This should force england to take chances which will either get them out or even if they get a big score it would be by the end of the day. Similary Pakistan should take atleast 1.5 days to bat. That way by the time Pakistan is done batting 3.5 days would have passed. If we continue to chose england for runs they would have to declare by lunch on the 5th day. They would be stupid to declare unless the lead is 250 runs. We would have a good chance to draw the match.
So TIME ON THE WICKET is the most important now.
But thats where winning the last Test against Australia wasnt good for us. Our lot thought they could just go in with the same team and plan.
Stani
But what was our think tank doing, didn’t the team management analyzed the pitch before the toss, they should have make some changes.
Kaneria has been bowling shit through out this year and was also involved in a match fixing controversy but we still gave him a default selection thats a blunder, and it seems they are too afraid to drop some players maybe becaus ethey fear that it might ignite another rift in the team.
And what has vexed me almost as much as Akmal is Gul’s no balls. Apart from the fact that he is experienced, he had an issue in the last game but he hasn’t addressed it in the days between then and now. The unprofessionalism of our players is beyond compare.
No more encouraging and clapping I’m afraid, these guys need kicks up the backside.
The pitch was obviously designed to try and counter our bowlers.
It’s clear their batsmen are just negotiating Aamer and helping themselves with the rest. They know it’s only him.
Or rub sand on it Wasim!
We’ve let them off in this innings and Test. We had them for the taking but due to poor decisions from the player sand the umpires, plus Akmals drop and stumping, we have let them ff the hook.
The worst thing is that we’ve now given Morgan Test career! The guy was plumb to Malik but DeSilva who has to be the poorest ‘elite’ umpire said no. Because we had no reviews left, we couldnt challenge. UDRS needs some work on it still.
The only hope I have now is that we dont make their bowlers look like super heroes, in particular Broad and Finn. I fear Swann will give us much more trouble than Kaneria, especially with Mushy behind him.
I agree with you about Malik. I say we get Hameed in next game if he fails in this match. Azhar looks safe but Amin needs to do a bit more I think.
Morkel and Steyn are no way as exciting to watch as Aamer and Asif.
This fuck face Khatmal is playing on the other side, did his best to lose against Australia and now when the bowlers are already struggling in the field he is leasing extra lives to every player of the opposition. Traitor needs to be sacked.
And what about Kamran mother fucking Akmal dropped one easy catch and missed one easy stumping, the bowlers are bound to get demoralized. This motherfucker needs to be dropped from this whole series no matter how he performs with the bat.
That energy we saw against Australia looks to have dissapeared. Gul has been poor and so has kaneria.
England are gradually getting into the driving seat this partnership needs to be broken.
Let them off the hook there. We really need to get them for 300 or we have no chance.
A spinner can never be effective in a test match if he can’t control runs and can’t tie the batsman down, Kaneria has never been able to do it, What is the wisdom of playing him, if we knew that we are going to rely on our pacers for wickets then we should have gone with Ajmal or Rahman who can control the flow of runs and keep the pressure on.
Looks like big mouth is going to cash in on our crap spin bowling. I wish he doesn’t get one wicket and gets dropped. Kaneria is crap end of.
Aamer and Asif have done it once again for Pakistan. Two more wickets and Collingwood will be forced to eat his words.
Dale Steyn and Morkel have performed really well in test cricket, but they just have sheer pace they can’t swing the ball as Asif and Aamer can do, there is no left armer in the world who can swing the ball as much as Aamer is swinging, Zaheer Khan can swing it back into the right handers but has no pace and I have never seen him swing so much, Johnson can’t do it, and no pace bowler has the accuracy of Asif the only thing this Pakistan pace attack is lacking is a bowler like Akhtar somebody who can bowl above 90k’s consistently all day long. The ability to reverse swing has also diminished but right now Aamer and Asif are bowling as good as anyone else in the world, and Yes Aamer is bowling like a young Wasim Akram the only thing he is missing is Wasim’s quick bouncer other than that he is bowling way better than Wasim in his initial years.
England are in deep shit, Asif and Aamer have rocked their boat, lets see if Mr Big Mouth is able to stable the English innings.
That is the risk with Kamran but I don’t think he will give that many runs on this wicket. If England scored 400 they will win quite comfortably.
But if he gets 4/140 off 35 overs and England get 400+ that is no where near good enough. Atleat he should be able to keep the runs down from one end if he isn’t going to get wickets. Ajmal for me all day long.
Kaneria should remain patient and should not try to bowl six different deliveries in one over, he will get some wickets in this match.
LOL ur right there bout kamran akmal. Kaneria is not a good Enough bowler to test arguably the best batting line up in the world. Aamir will be the key. Hope kaneria gets droped.
The wicket has no bounce it’s dry and has plenty of turn for spinners, Gul is not looking in rythym this is the stage where he usually reverses the ball but so far he has been unable to keep a good line and length and hasn’t been able to move the ball, Kaneria will have to do most of work.
Kamran
I think your namesake decided that the poor batting performance of him and his brother wasn’t enough to make Pakistan lose so he decided to use his keeping skills. What a shithouse wicket keeper he is, England would have been in trouble if he had taken that catch.
Kamran akmal you waste of space LOL. If he had taken that catch England would have been so under pressure. Anyway good solid start by England so our bowling attack will get tested and kaneria will have to show more than he did against australia. 72/1. 18 overs.