Pakistan will play 4 Tests, 5 ODIs and a T20 against England from July 14 to September 7. This is Pakistan’s first bilateral tour to England since the infamous 2010 series which has overshadowed Pakistan cricket ever since.
Where the spot-fixing saga threatened to be a curtain call on Pakistan’s cricketing ambitions, it actually helped fortify the current Test unit into a world beating squad. While the Misbah years have brought their fair share of limited-overs success, it’s in the Test arena that Pakistan’s skipper has surpassed all his illustrious predecessors and formed a successful unit that is a formidable challenge for anyone, anywhere, but especially in the UAE desserts.
The top-order, clearly the weakest link in the Pakistani line-up, will be crucial for the visitors to have any chance of competing with England
For Pakistan to overcome and England side buoyed by on-field excellence and home conditions, the team would need to ignore the tour’s much touted billing - that of redemption. Between 2010 and 2016, England have toured UAE twice, losing five of their six Tests against Pakistan and failing to register a win. Evidently, England have a lot to redeem as well.
England are going into the Test series as clear favourites, because their batting lineup under given conditions is clearly superior to Pakistan’s - at least on paper. Furthermore, they also have the best pace attack in the world, which can further exploit Pakistani batsmen’s weaknesses in seaming conditions.
While Pakistan’s pace attack can more than match England’s, as mentioned above it’s the batting disparity which can be the differential. But Pakistan with a far superior spin attack can test England in a way that the hosts can’t.
Pakistan’s Test squad for England:
Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imran Khan, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Rizwan, Rahat Ali, Sami Aslam, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Shan Masood, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah, Younis Khan, Zulfiqar Babar
It would be interesting to see whether Pakistan would go with the two spinners that they normally do in the UAE considering the English conditions. But the potential Starting XI for Pakistan would look something like this:
Mohammad Hafeez, Shan Masood/Sami Aslam, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar/Rahat Ali/Sohail Khan
Pakistan basically have two calls to make, the other nine players almost pick themselves. Shan Masood and Sami Aslam will be vying for the opening slot to partner Mohammad Hafeez, while Pakistan’s fourth bowler will be an intriguing pick as well.
For the fourth bowler, Pakistan would first need to decide whether they’re going with three seamers and a spinner or two seamers and spinners each. If they go with three seamers, they’d have to pick between Rahat Ali - with two left-handed pacers Amir and Wahab already in the starting 11 - and Sohail Khan.
Pakistan could have opted for five bowlers as well, had the batting oozed more confidence for English conditions. This is where a medium pace bowling all-rounder could’ve come in really handy for Pakistan.
Hafeez might be the obvious pick given his experience, but all of the three Pakistan openers still have to prove themselves in the given conditions. Pakistan could opt for Azhar Ali to open the innings as well, but taking three specialist openers to England suggests that won’t be the case.
The top-order, clearly the weakest link in the Pakistani line-up, will be crucial for the visitors to have any chance of competing with England. The experienced middle-order and the pace attack would have to be at their reliable best as well.
Fate has brought Amir to Lord’s again where he will bowl the first ball since being banned for bowling premeditated no-balls on that very ground six years ago. For Misbah the stage is set for a conquest to top all his previous achievements in a country where the foundation for his captaincy tenure were inadvertently laid. And for Mickey Arthur, victory in England would be the grandest way to announce his arrival - not only for Pakistan, but also as a world-beating coach.
For all that to happen, however, Pakistan would need to overcome challenges, both on and off the pitch.