Pakistan vs England: A Battle of Spinners
The battle between the two most successful test teams of 2011 Pakistan & England is starting tomorrow as both teams will push to stamp their authority on each other in test cricket.
The down and out 2010’s Pakistan cricket team have comeback strongly under the captaincy of Misbah-ul-Haq in 2011 as they finished the year with six test victories and only one loss. On the other hand, England will start the series as favorites as they weren’t only most successful team of the last year but they are also enjoying the number 1 spot in the International Cricket Council (ICC) test rankings.
On papers, England certainly is the better test team than Pakistan as they have the services of experienced and seasoned players and they are playing as the good unit from last two years. The highlight of England cricket teams’s victories in 2011 was the 4-0 whitewash against the then number 1 team India as Indian cricket team was failed to win a single match in all three formats during their tour of England and lost their number 1 position to England.
On the other hand, Pakistan cricket team is in revival phase and is fighting to get rid of spot fixing controversy which hit the credibility of Pakistan cricket and its players. The team has performed exceptionally well under the captaincy of Misbah in 2011 as Pakistan lost only one test under his captaincy and won the series against New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Pakistan also lost only one ODI out of 14 under captaincy of Misbah while won all the five T20Is under Misbah.
Misbah has been criticized by many cricket experts for his defensive approach especially in test cricket but the results he had achieved in last 12-15 months certainly endorsed his approach and tactics. Pakistan cricket team head coach Mohsin Khan has also backed Misbah’s approach and said that, its results which matters at the end of the day.
However, the real test of character, temperament, potential and approach of both teams is waiting in the hot weather and dead pitches of UAE. If we consider the recent past performance of Pakistan cricket team in UAE, we can say that Pakistan is favorite as they are accustomed to the conditions of UAE and their exceptional performances against South Africa in 2010 and against Sri Lanka in 2011 are the prime examples. England traditionally struggled in sub-continent conditions as they failed to win a single test match in 2005 tour to Pakistan after claiming the famous Ashes series against Australia by 2-1 but lost the series against Pakistan by 2-0.
Last year, England also failed to taste victory in one day international series against India and lost the series by 5-0. England has opted to send their full strength team and their batting line-up is exceptional. Alistair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Trott and Prior were among the leading run scorers in last year along with skipper Andrew Struass while Anderson, Broad and Swann were the leading wicket takers for England in last year.
Pakistan cricket team is developing in to good unit but now they are facing their major challenge. Pakistan depends heavily on their spinners as Saeed Ajmal had a fantastic last year where he ended up as the leading wicket taker with 50 wickets in 8 test matches at an impressive average of 23.86. Ajmal was working on its new mystery delivery for England series and it would be a great battle between Ajmal and England batsmen. England batsmen will either over-cautious against Ajmal or will launch a counter attack on him and in both cases, the bowlers like Rehman, Hafeez and Gul will be benefitted even Ajmal failed to pick the majority of England wickets.
England also has the quality off spinner Graeme Swann while Monty Panesar was also impressive in the warm-up matches before the start of the series and there is every possibility that England will go with two spinners to test vulnerable Pakistani batting line-up.
Pakistan will heavily depend on Younus Khan, Misbah and Azhar Ali for scoring runs while openers Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umer need to show character and discipline against the new ball in the all important series.
England certainly has advantage over Pakistan in batting and fielding department but its Pakistani spinners, who are winning test matches for Pakistan in the series against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and Pakistan certainly has advantage over England in this particular department. I don’t think that fast bowlers will play any major role in the series and the matches will be decided by the performances of spinners of both sides.
Pakistan also has problem with their number six batsman as Asad Shafiq is doing decent job but he is vulnerable against the swing bowling and his technique will certainly test by the English bowlers. There is also debate whether to continue with Asad Shafiq or give exciting Umar Akmal a go against the England. But as we witnessed the approach of Misbah last year, we can say that Misbah will go for defensive Asad rather than attacking Umar.
England has the very strong and capable wicket keeper batsman Matt Prior at number 7 who scored three centuries in 2011 while Pakistan has another Akmal who is keeping for Pakistan and has just scored his maiden test fifty in December against Bangladesh.
Both teams have services of good fast bowlers but Pakistani fast bowlers Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Aizaz Cheema and Junaid Khan can better exploit the conditions in UAE if we compare it to English pacers James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlet and Steven Finn.
All in all, cricket lovers will witness absorbing test cricket and everyone is sure that the match will go to the fifth day regardless of result as the slow and dead pitches in UAE will certainly ask for extra efforts from both teams to produce a result.
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