*Official* Pakistan in England 2020

[Daemon]

Haris Sohail's identical twin dismissals to Starc in Australia made me rate him a lot less than before. Awful wafts.

 

[smash84]

yeah, I don't see Haris Sohail as much of a test player either.

 

[DriveClub]

He played the last three Tests Pakistan played didn't he? Just seems extremely injury prone.

And unfit, definitely on the chubby side. Pak batting is slightly better than WIs in these conditions but WIs bowling is slightly more balanced I think. Because of Jason holder they're able to play an extra bowler. So I expect a similar performance from pakistan. Is yasir still the spinner of choice for pakistan?

 

[Burgey]

Just realised the itinerary for this series means there will have been three consecutive tests at Manchester this Pommy summer.

I can't recall whether this has ever happened before in a test playing nation? Maybe the UAE or Zim? When SL first played tests, did they play all their matches at one ground or did they have a few from the get-go? Genuinely can't recall.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I reckon England will bugger em 3-0 tbh.

It's refreshing to have an optimistic English cricket fan (you and GIMH will have to start a club; I wouldn't be too confident to your numbers swelling much beyond the pair of you though), but Pakistan always do well in England.

Without looking I can't recall the last time they didn't take at least a test off us on a tour.

 

[morgieb]

It's refreshing to have an optimistic English cricket fan (you and GIMH will have to start a club; I wouldn't be too confident to your numbers swelling much beyond the pair of you though), but Pakistan always do well in England.

Without looking I can't recall the last time they didn't take at least a test off us on a tour.

That 2006 tour, even if they were about to belt you in the Test they forfeited.

 

[vcs]

Blimey, England's schedule is so packed. Match starting in a couple of days. Pakistan have always troubled England at home and I would expect the same here. Should be a tightly contested series.

 

[Flem274*]

i hope babar scores a million runs.

come on asad you total competent spud, i believe in you. hide at #6 and shine like ian bell.

 

[Daemon]

Expect England to take the series comfortably but drop a game as usual

 

[Beamer]

And unfit, definitely on the chubby side. Pak batting is slightly better than WIs in these conditions but WIs bowling is slightly more balanced I think. Because of Jason holder they're able to play an extra bowler. So I expect a similar performance from pakistan. Is yasir still the spinner of choice for pakistan?

I feel that the our seam bowling is a little stronger, but in every other aspect Pakistan is a better team than us and should cause more of a challenge. For a start, they might actually put some runs on the board. I'm looking forward to watching it.

 

[Flem274*]

never overestimate pakistan against a moving ball

id be tempted to play curran. they wouldn't be able to resist chasing 120kph swinging balls.

 

[Howe_zat]

WI didn't have as good a top six as Pakistan but they also batted deeper with Holder-Dowrich-Joseph/Cornwall at 7/8/9

Pakistan migt end up with Yasir Shah at 8 and then three no. 11s

 

[Beamer]

never overestimate pakistan against a moving ball

id be tempted to play curran. they wouldn't be able to resist chasing 120kph swinging balls.

They'll score more runs than us because a couple of their guys get forward. There's no way they'll concede as many lbw's as we did.

 

[Howe_zat]

Pakistan are well within their powers to select a batting lineup that (despite Azam) is likely to get eaten alive in England

1. Shan Masood
2. Imam ul Haq
3. Azhar Ali
4. Babar Azam
5. Asad Shafiq
6. Sarfaraz Khan
7. Shadab Khan/Faheem Ashraf
8. Yasir Shah
9. Shaheen Afridi
10. Naseem Shah
11. Mohammed Abbas

I don't actually expect them to do that which means they could

 

[vcs]

I think Azhar Ali will struggle even though he had some decent series against SL/Bangladesh, feels like he's a bit past it for overseas tours. His MO was always to grind out runs and he's going to be sorely tested by Archer and Broad IMO.

This feels like Azam's time to dominate. Expect at least a century and a couple of big knocks. Shafiq and the keeper will make a 50 at some point. The rest have to bat around him.

 

[OverratedSanity]

The thing this Pakistan team is missing is a guy like Younis who can go massive when on his game. Not just get a ton but a massive 150/200. Even in overseas conditions, you occasionally get a good batting deck and that's where the best batsmen ruthlessly dominate and put up a huge score. I think Azhar was capable of doing that at his peak a few years ago but he's been crap for a while. Azam is great but he reminds me so much of pre 2016 kohli... Clearly world class but never gets the big hundreds. It'll come to him with time but can see it hurting Pakistan until then because I can't see any of the others doing that.

 

[Flem274*]

TIL imam ul haq averages 53 in odis with 7 tons

when did this happen? i struggle to keep up with jamodis these days

 

[vcs]

The thing this Pakistan team is missing is a guy like Younis who can go massive when on his game. Not just get a ton but a massive 150/200. Even in overseas conditions, you occasionally get a good batting deck and that's where the best batsmen ruthlessly dominate and put up a huge score. I think Azhar was capable of doing that at his peak a few years ago but he's been crap for a while. Azam is great but he reminds me so much of pre 2016 kohli... Clearly world class but never gets the big hundreds. It'll come to him with time but can see it hurting Pakistan until then because I can't see any of the others doing that.

Pakistan's bowling attack in these conditions is probably good enough to enable them to win Tests with 350-ish first innings scores. Not the case in Australia of course, but they should be more competitive in England.

 

[honestbharani]

Naseem is the one I wanna watch. Come on kiddo.

 

[wpdavid]

Maybe worth reminding folks that we're now in the second half of the English summer, so Pakistan's batters shouldn't have to worry about too may seamers' paradises in this series.