**Official** Pakistan and England in the UAE 2015/16

[Daemon]

What Misbah has done in these last few years during the toughest years of Pakistani Cricket is beautiful. What a great, great man.

Wish I could be a fly on the wall in their dressing room, pretty sure it'll be him in the corner being the calm, gentle and firm senior while the akmals and afridis run around like little children.

 

[hendrix]

there's threads on Pakpassion about Yasir Shah filling Afridi's boots.

Lol.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Tom Cruise could not resist a selfie

 

[Furball]

ummm, yes it was

His foot landed miles behind the line.

 

[Black_Warrior]

So guys, your teams for Sharjah? Any changes?

For Pakistan, the question will be where to place Azhar Ali. You can drop Shan Masood and open with Azhar, but for anyone who has seen the second test, it should be clear that Malik is not really a test standard batsman. His mode of dismissals on these pitches, when he is at his best form (scored a 245 a week ago) is worrying. Next year Pakistan are playing in England and Australia. There is no way he is going to last the full England series next year. Better to save him and the team some embarrassment. But I don't see that happening, Pak are not known to think that far ahead and especially not when he scored a double a week ago.

For England,
I think Adil made a good case of doing the role Moeen has been doing for a year or so. I think it might be worth giving him a rest, opening with Hales instead. Taylor can come in for Butler but don't see this happening to be honest. All the players including Cook seem to be fully behind supporting Butler.

 

[LFD]

Would be tempted to drop Broad for the next Test and play another batsman. He's only got two wickets in the Two Tests for 134 runs. I would have thought with Anderson, Wood, Stokes, Rashid, Ali & Root we have enough bowling options.

Would bring Hales to open. Moeen Ali is not delivering as an opener and let's give Hales (who is actually an opener) a chance.

Would bring in Taylor for Bairstow as well. Taylor suits the conditions more and I have been sayng for a long time has better technique to cope with Test cricket.

Think we have to persist with Buttler, given the only other option is Bairstow and he's not a better keeper or batting much better than him.

Bell on his last chance, if he doesn't deliver then he might need to be dropped as well.

So my side would be:

Hales
Cook
Bell
Root
Taylor
Stokes
Ali
Buttler or Bairstow (don't care which)
Rashid
Wood
Anderson

 

[91Jmay]

Pakistan fully deserved win and dominated from Day 3 onward, still happy with how we are competing more than I thought we would especially given losing two tosses.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Pakistan fully deserved win and dominated from Day 3 onward, still happy with how we are competing more than I thought we would especially given losing two tosses.

Agree with this, thought we would be folding limply like the last tour here but these guys are at least putting up a fight. Well some of them are.

 

[Watson33]

Would be tempted to drop Broad for the next Test and play another batsman. He's only got two wickets in the Two Tests for 134 runs. I would have thought with Anderson, Wood, Stokes, Rashid, Ali & Root we have enough bowling options.

Would bring Hales to open. Moeen Ali is not delivering as an opener and let's give Hales (who is actually an opener) a chance.

Would bring in Taylor for Bairstow as well. Taylor suits the conditions more and I have been sayng for a long time has better technique to cope with Test cricket.

Think we have to persist with Buttler, given the only other option is Bairstow and he's not a better keeper or batting much better than him.

Bell on his last chance, if he doesn't deliver then he might need to be dropped as well.

So my side would be:

Hales
Cook
Bell
Root
Taylor
Stokes
Ali
Buttler or Bairstow (don't care which)
Rashid
Wood
Anderson

I'd stick with Bairstow and drop Bell. I agree with you on the shout of Hales to open and Taylor to be given a chance.

Hales
Cook (c)
Taylor
Root
Stokes
Ali
Bairstow (wk)
Rashid
Broad
Wood
Anderson

I'd also give Jos Buttler a chance to have a rest and try and find his form ahead of the Wt20. If England are to do anything in that tournament, he has to be a massive part of that success.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

More important than the T20 thing is what they do with him for the upcoming tour of SA. Can they take him on that tour given the form he is in or would it be better to give him a 3-4 month break to recharge mentally come back with a fresh outlook?

 

[OverratedSanity]

Agree with this, thought we would be folding limply like the last tour here but these guys are at least putting up a fight. Well some of them are.

It's not as though the last tour was some one sided drubbing though. England fell like a pack of cards but so did Pakistan. It was just that your collapses were slightly worse than theirs.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

It's not as though the last tour was some one sided drubbing though. England fell like a pack of cards but so did Pakistan. It was just that your collapses were slightly worse than theirs.

Yeah but when an experienced side folds like that you expect it to be worse/more dramatic with a less experienced side. To their credit it is one bad session in two tests which means they are 1-0 down which is far more than I expected. I thought we would have had nightmare sessions a couple of times a test and get blown away.


Not saying Pakistan don't deserve to be ahead either before anyone starts. They do, they took the chance and rammed it home. Just pray we win the toss and bat well in next test to give us a chance of drawing the series.

 

[theegyptian]

More important than the T20 thing is what they do with him for the upcoming tour of SA. Can they take him on that tour given the form he is in or would it be better to give him a 3-4 month break to recharge mentally come back with a fresh outlook?

We're talking Buttler here right.

I think it would be detrimental to take him as reserve wicketkeeper for the test tour. For the guys who play 3 formats (Root, Stokes, Buttler, Finn, etc) I think it's very important they get breaks when you can give them - especially someone like Buttler who is so vital to the shorter formats. No point going on a two month test tour as backup keeper when the schedule throughout the year is brutal. I don't mind whether they continue with him or drop him but please don't take him with the intention of him being the backup keeper - take Billings or whoever instead.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Yeah I was on about Buttler. I think we all expect him to be dropped but the worry is there isn't much in reserve behind him and Bairstow so he may retain his place in the squad anyway. Be pointless him being drinks man for 2 months. We either stick with him or give him a break in my opinion.

 

[Niall]

So guys, your teams for Sharjah? Any changes?

For Pakistan, the question will be where to place Azhar Ali. You can drop Shan Masood and open with Azhar, but for anyone who has seen the second test, it should be clear that Malik is not really a test standard batsman. His mode of dismissals on these pitches, when he is at his best form (scored a 245 a week ago) is worrying. Next year Pakistan are playing in England and Australia. There is no way he is going to last the full England series next year. Better to save him and the team some embarrassment. But I don't see that happening, Pak are not known to think that far ahead and especially not when he scored a double a week ago.

It will be Azhar for Shan. Malik will never get another flat pitch like the first and like his previous trips will fail horridly in England. However due to his bowling, he will play the fifth test.
Babar done enough to hold off Bilal as well due to his last day effort I suppose.

Masood has faced 17 balls from Anderson, out four times, he like Malik is absolutely doomed in England as well.

 

[theegyptian]

England must play to their strengths in Sharjah and pick Liam Plunkett | Sport | The Guardian

Selvey going with the 5 seamer route for the last test. Gotta admit it's something I'd been thinking about given the ease in which Pakistan have played Moeen and Rashid. Even with nothing in the wicket for the seamers they've seemed to have controlled and caused more trouble for the Pakistan bats. He's dropping Rashid but I'd probably lean towards dropping Moeen.

 

[smash84]

so Yasir is now 2nd in the ICC bowling rankings.

He's been bowling on spin friendly tracks so far.

The real test would come when he moves outside Asia. Get a feeling that he will be found out.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

England must play to their strengths in Sharjah and pick Liam Plunkett | Sport | The Guardian

Selvey going with the 5 seamer route for the last test. Gotta admit it's something I'd been thinking about given the ease in which Pakistan have played Moeen and Rashid. Even with nothing in the wicket for the seamers they've seemed to have controlled and caused more trouble for the Pakistan bats. He's dropping Rashid but I'd probably lean towards dropping Moeen.

Could argue with dropping Moeen as Rashid looks a player who may score a few runs in next test too. The way he got his head down and was reading the leg spinner was pretty impressive.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

so Yasir is now 2nd in the ICC bowling rankings.

He's been bowling on spin friendly tracks so far.

The real test would come when he moves outside Asia. Get a feeling that he will be found out.

Until he does we can't say. Does a fine job in Asia anyway so even if he is found out they shouldn't dump him as he will win tests/series in UAE and will keep them in in in rest of Asia matches.

 

[smash84]

Until he does we can't say. Does a fine job in Asia anyway so even if he is found out they shouldn't dump him as he will win tests/series in UAE and will keep them in in in rest of Asia matches.

that's true. Since Pakistan play a lot more in the uae than outside it then there definitely is value in having him around.