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England test tour of Pakistan December 2022

theegyptian

theegyptian

International Vice-Captain
First Test - 1-5 December, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi

Second Test - 9-13 December, Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan

Third Test - 17-21 December, National Stadium, Karachi

England squad: Ben Stokes (capt), James Anderson, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes (wk), Will Jacks, Keaton Jennings, Jack Leach, Liam Livingstone, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Mark Wood, Rehan Ahmed

Pakistan squad: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc & wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood, Zahid Mahmood.
 
theegyptian

theegyptian

International Vice-Captain
Wood and Brook missed the pretour camp in UAE- and looks like Wood has all but been ruled out of the first test due to lack of practice and the injury that saw him miss the world t20s. As far as I can see that leaves the 40 year old Anderson, the injury prone Robinson, and the far from always healthy Jack Leach as definites. Jamie Overton is the only other frontline bowler in the squad but also has a very questionable fitness record and isn't that good (although has improved a bit in the last year). May well see 2 of Jacks, Livingstone or Rehan Ahmed playing which seems ludicrous.
 
Xuhaib

Xuhaib

International Coach
Not interested one bit in this series.

Apparently Rambo Raja has once again asked for the roadiest of the roads. This idiot makes the past PCB chairmen look like Steve Jobs at their job.
 
A

Ashes81

State Vice-Captain
Our bowling looks light, particularly if Wood is out.

The positions in doubt are number 6 which looks a toss up between Brook and Duckett. I think Duckett may get the nod as he's excellent against spin.

Also will we play a 3rd seamer in Overton or a second spinner in Ahmed or Livingstone.

Much will depend on the pitch and in typical England style, we'll probably play Livingston as he can bowl a bit of spin. This despite the fact he's neither good enough with either bat or ball at test level.

I think our 11 will be
Crawley
Jennings
Pope
Root
Stokes
Duckett
Livingstone
Foakes
Robinson
Anderson
Leach
 
theegyptian

theegyptian

International Vice-Captain
It does seem kind of ludicrous to be questioning the methods of Mcullum/Stokes having brought about this change in fortune in the test side; before they took over England had won 1 in 17, since they've won 6 out of 7. Nothing short of remarkable.

I am conflicted though. Can this ultra attacking style really produce sustainable positive results in the long run? Are there young batsman coming through who may miss out due to their more considered approach, or be forced into a more aggresive style which runs contrary to their natural style and have negative consequences. There doesn't seem much room for different styles in the team currently. You only had to see Alex Lees dreadful attempts at being ultra aggresive to understand that. Will it become too easier for a player to take an aggresive stance whilst batting, and just shrug his shoulders when it goes wrong 'because that's the way we play'? Is there a moderating influence in the dressing room to balance out some of the Stokes/Mcullum ultra aggression? Do Mcullum/Stokes know (or care) that it tends to be flat in Pakistan and you may be in the field for 2 days straight and need more than 1 frontline spinner (and 3 frontline bowlers total).

Who knows. It'll be interesting though whatever happens.
 
theegyptian

theegyptian

International Vice-Captain
Couple of nuggets from Mcullum in the telegraph- Strong on the vibes.

cutting short the last day of the team’s only warm up match against the Lions for a golf day instead

“This morning he was downstairs, doing his skin fold test and I said ‘ah bugger that let’s go and have some breakfast instead." On Rehan Ahmed
 
A

Ashes81

State Vice-Captain
There's no doubt that McCullum brought a much needed change and positive approach to our test cricket.

After the truly horrific debacle of the Ashes, change was badly needed and McCullum takes great credit for our success last summer.

But at times, we were far too aggressive, nobody more so than Stokes who would often dance down the wicket 2nd or 3rd ball and wildly slog to cow corner.

It's all very well being positive at home but it'll be a different kettle of fish in Pakistan and it wouldn't surprise me if we come undone.

We're still a pretty poor batting outfit. We don't have one decent opener, nevermind 2. Ollie Pope isn't a test number 3 for me, he should be at 5 or 6 but with Root preferring number 4, Pope's been shunted up to 3.

Our seam bowling lacks penetration on flatish pitches without Archer and Wood.

Leach is a decent spinner but nowhere near top class.

But under McCullum we produced passages of play that won matches. Bairstow was unbelievable last summer and will be a big miss and as ever Root and Stokes will be vital.

England are usually very good to watch as we're so unpredictable and we have a habit of being caught up in very close and exciting matches.

Will Baz Ball work in Pakistan - I have my doubts and much will depend on the pitches.

Hopefully the pitches allow a fair contest between bat and ball. If they do it could be a really interesting series.
 
Burgey

Burgey

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Good to see former parramatta batsman Ben Duckett on dayboo for England this series
 
Red_Ink_Squid

Red_Ink_Squid

Global Moderator
theegyptian said:
It does seem kind of ludicrous to be questioning the methods of Mcullum/Stokes having brought about this change in fortune in the test side; before they took over England had won 1 in 17, since they've won 6 out of 7. Nothing short of remarkable.

I am conflicted though. Can this ultra attacking style really produce sustainable positive results in the long run? Are there young batsman coming through who may miss out due to their more considered approach, or be forced into a more aggresive style which runs contrary to their natural style and have negative consequences. There doesn't seem much room for different styles in the team currently. You only had to see Alex Lees dreadful attempts at being ultra aggresive to understand that. Will it become too easier for a player to take an aggresive stance whilst batting, and just shrug his shoulders when it goes wrong 'because that's the way we play'? Is there a moderating influence in the dressing room to balance out some of the Stokes/Mcullum ultra aggression? Do Mcullum/Stokes know (or care) that it tends to be flat in Pakistan and you may be in the field for 2 days straight and need more than 1 frontline spinner (and 3 frontline bowlers total).

Who knows. It'll be interesting though whatever happens.
Click to expand...
This is a fair summary. The Baz/Stokes ultra-aggressive approach feels like it should fail on attritional Pakistan wickets and we seem to be rolling with 60% of a bowling attack. But …the side kinda delivered beyond reasonable expectation in the summer. Everything always seems to come up Stokes somehow, like Homer repeatedly preventing nuclear meltdowns by sheer chance. Maybe he’ll find a way to succeed again? Or at least make things interesting. I’m definitely interested to see how it all plays out.
 
Red_Ink_Squid

Red_Ink_Squid

Global Moderator
Ashes81 said:
Our bowling looks light, particularly if Wood is out.

The positions in doubt are number 6 which looks a toss up between Brook and Duckett. I think Duckett may get the nod as he's excellent against spin.

Also will we play a 3rd seamer in Overton or a second spinner in Ahmed or Livingstone.

Much will depend on the pitch and in typical England style, we'll probably play Livingston as he can bowl a bit of spin. This despite the fact he's neither good enough with either bat or ball at test level.

I think our 11 will be
Crawley
Jennings
Pope
Root
Stokes
Duckett
Livingstone
Foakes
Robinson
Anderson
Leach
Click to expand...
I think Duckett will open with Crawley, Brook at 5 and Jennings benched. Otherwise I reckon your team is what they'll go with (unless they prefer Jacks or Ahmed over Livingstone for the spin-bowling no rounder spot).
 
flibbertyjibber

flibbertyjibber

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Crawley
Jennings
Pope
Root
Stokes
Brook
Foakes
Livingstone
Robinson
Leach
Anderson

That is my guess. Who knows though.
 
Sunil1z

Sunil1z

International Regular
@trundler @Xuhaib
Is this the worst ever Pakistan Test team based on squad? Because I have been following Pak team since 1997 and can’t remember such a lacklustre line up ?
 
trundler

trundler

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Sunil1z said:
@trundler @Xuhaib
Is this the worst ever Pakistan Test team based on squad? Because I have been following Pak team since 1997 and can’t remember such a lacklustre line up ?
Click to expand...
They've all been extremely underwhelming for the last few years. No bowlers coming through because of the putrid domestic pitches and they just disregard QeA entirely to pick whichever new guy around the LO squad is in favour. Afridi missing out exposed the bare bowling stocks even more. They've picked several guys with no FC experience (Wasim, Rauf) over Abbas and Mir Hamza (best young FC seamer in the country). No idea what's the point of no rounders like Nawaz and Iftikhar but it does show a defensive mindset. Fawad Alam scored another ton today but they've found an excuse to axe him again. I expect to see horrible roads which will expose the poor bowling entirely and this will be made worse by Babar Azam not having any idea what to do with reverse swing. Naseem, Mir Hamza and Faheem would be an okayish pace attack in the absence of Shaheen and Fawad Alam would obviously make the middle order stronger especially on normal pitches but they've decided to settle for draws already it seems like. The new leggie Abrar Ahmad looks relatively exciting if I had to say one good thing about the squad. By the way, Nauman Uncle is averaging 50 this season.
 
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