The Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi: a ground England have never played at
England’s forthcoming tour to Dubai & Abu Dhabi to play Pakistan (first test beginning on January the 17th) is somewhat unchartered territory for the English team. England have only ever played two Twenty20 internationals in Dubai and they’ve never played in Abu Dhabi. A couple of players may have had a bit of experience with their county teams in pre season matches out there but other than that playing in the Emirates will be a completely new experience for the England squad. They may well be the number one test team at the minute but I think this test series could be really closely contested against a somewhat rejuvenated Pakistan team. Their decision to arrive in the Emirates four days prior to their hosts suggests that the England set up thinks so too.
No international team has toured Pakistan since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus back in 2009 hence the reason they’ve adopted the Emirates as their home base. Since moving their home games over there Pakistan have not lost a ‘home’ test match (playing 5, winning 1 & drawing 4). More interestingly since the 2010 England series (and the removal of the spot fixers) Pakistan have only lost one test home or away playing 12, winning 6, drawing 5 and losing a solitary test away to the West Indies in the summer just gone. A pretty good record. Pakistan have also played 5 tests in the last 10 weeks. 5 more than England.
Junaid Khan in action for Lancashire - summer 2011
Their resurgence seems to be a combination of getting rid of the spot fixers (that includes Teflon Akmal behind the stumps) and the individual performances of a side that seem relatively settled under the leadership of 37 year old skipper Misbah Ul-Haq. Since becoming captain for the South Africa Series in November 2010, batting at 5, he himself has averaged an impressive 75.76. Also impressing with the bat in that 12 match period has been a top four of Taufeeq Umar (3 centuries), Younis Khan (averaging 78.75), Azhar Ali (51.00) and all rounder Mohammed Hafeez who has succeeded in the much feted double of averaging more than 30 with the bat and less than 30 with the ball. To add to the batting they seem to have an abundance of bowling options similar to England’s. Pace wise they have the veteran right arm seamers Umar Gul & Aziaz Cheema (who has impressed since debuting only this year) to select from as well as two left arm seamers who have recently showed their potential in domestic cricket in England – Junaid Khan (Lancashire) & Wahab Riaz (Kent). Spinners Saeed Ajmal (53 wickets in his last 9 games) & Abdur Rehman (45 wickets in his last 10) have also had an excellent time of things recently.
Now these stats may be a bit skewed due to the fact that Pakistan haven’t been playing the best of sides over the course of the last 12 games. Of their opponents only South Africa feature in the top 4 sides in the world. It is also a relatively inexperienced side. Taking Umar Gul out of the equation their seam attack only has 15 test matches between them. However, this is what should make it such a fascinating series. Not the fact that it’s the first time the teams have met since the spot fixing scandal (I’m sure that EVERY newspaper article leading up to the series will mention this).England are currently the best team in the world. They are now playing a form team in a brand new environment. It should be good.
Agreed – but the majority of Pakistan’s recent wins have come against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, so that has to be taken into account. Pakistan always seem to be able to stitch a bowling attack together seemingly from nowhere, but I think their batting lacks ambition and aggression; when I’ve seen them at ‘home’ against South Africa and even against Sri Lanka to a degree, their attitude seems to have been not to lose first, win second. You see a lot of 150-ball 50s from the likes of Azhar and Shafiq, but not enough hundreds and no one to really up the pace unless Umar Akmal plays. England are still favourites for me, but it’ll be a tough series for sure.
Thanks for your comment Sam. Fair points re the their wins – take them out the equation and it’s certainly a more modest looking record! They are performing a lot better than I think most England fans have considered though. It should be interesting to see how they get on.
Re lack of ambition; most modern sides can be accused of this I think. It seems that most sides go for the ‘not lose’ first before going for victory. South Africa have always been conservative (unless they were skippered by Hansie Cronje) and even England take a relatively un ambitious approach. The thing with England though is that they now know how to win so they more often than not turn that not lose into a win. If Pakistan can manage that too they could be very formidable. But they’re so unpredictable anything could happen!