PAK vs ENG 2024/25, PAK vs ENG 1st Test Match Preview

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PAK vs ENG 2024/25, PAK vs ENG 1st Test Match Preview

Big picture: You’re back on the road again

Ask a friend, any friend, where do you think England will play a Test match this week? Who, among the most devoted cricket fans, could hope to go along with the absurd journey that, only last week(!), pitted England against Australia in a grueling one-day series at the end of a terrible summer?

And now, without pausing to turn back the clocks, they’re back on their winter tour again… to Pakistan, a place England haven’t set foot in for almost two decades since 2005, but will soon have played six Tests over two years, which is more away matches than Australia and India have allowed in the same period.

It’s all very sad – and that’s before we get into the weeds this winter, with the white-ball tour of the West Indies just three weeks away, and another Test series in New Zealand coming up next month. It’s no wonder that James Anderson decided to catch his golf holidays while he still could, or that Andrew Flintoff decided that a role in the reboot of the 80s cult game might be a smart move. The international schedule is already chaotic. What’s the harm in not working more?

Speaking of such things… England’s athletes have become champions of chaos. Leaving aside their painful recent record of losing five Tests in a row – two of which were lost to Bangladesh in the home series last month – the nature of Pakistan’s inefficiency is best illustrated in the absurd build-up to this series, which involves closeness. -daily debates about the favorite areas of the three tests.

With Karachi and Lahore out of action, and Rawalpindi booked for an international conference, it was well thought out to start the show in Abu Dhabi instead – much to the dismay of Brendon McCullum – before the back-to-back matches in Multan ended. was resolved late last month. Despite the country’s many hidden charms, Pakistan has never been a favorite destination for travel fans, and many tour operators are abandoning their plans amid the uncertainty, which is unlikely to change in the coming weeks.

Regardless of the design (or lack thereof), this is a better match than the shoe horn treatment. England’s last trip to Pakistan in December 2022 was a rare victory, driven by a pedal-to-the-metal strike in the series opener in Rawalpindi, but defined by Ben Stokes’ excellent captaincy throughout: from his perfectly weighted declaration to force. victory on that dead pitch, his new 20-wicket haul in similarly dire conditions in Multan, and even outpacing his faith in rookie Rehan Ahmed, his five-wicket debut in Karachi a sign of love in the campaign.

Times have changed rapidly since then, not least in the development of England’s bowling attack. None of the three key standouts from that previous tour – Anderson, Mark Wood and Ollie Robinson – will make the return trip, with their replacements, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson together. The seam attack that has played overseas Tests is almost zero in the entire era of Bazball.

Furthermore, with Stokes out through injury, the pressure will be on Ollie Pope to combine the same alchemy with the tools at his disposal. Although he acquitted himself as a leader in the three Tests in Sri Lanka, Pope was guilty of over-attacking in their last game at the Kia Oval – a trait that revealed the level of cunning in Stokes’ methods that can sometimes be. lose the championship of his team’s overall performance.

If Pakistan have an edge, then, it will be in their bowling attack. The union of Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Aamer Jamal is, on paper, the best attack they have produced in months, and provides an edge that was missing for much of that 2022 campaign in particular. Although Jamal has played just three Tests, each of which came in Australia’s first 18-wicket series, full-back Naseem may leave England yearning for the 150kph exocets that Wood brought to that earlier success.

There is no doubt that the essence of this series will return in full once the teams take to the field and the usual rhythm of Test cricket returns to center stage. But right now, with no build-up, no enthusiasm – maybe no fans – it feels like cricket for cricket’s sake. The team that is able to park the best of what is available could steal a significant march over the next five days.

Form guide

Pakistan LLLLL (The last five tests, the most recent being the first)
In England LWWWW

Highlights – Abrar Ahmed and Chris Woakes

England’s batsmen – five of whom will play the second Test in Multan – will no doubt miss the Pakistan player who stood out on his first tour two years ago. With her Harry Potter glasses and a name that came pre-loaded with witch-themed titles, Abrar Ahmed couldn’t hide anything from her Pakistani maiden appearance. Instead, he tore through the song that made him a standout performance in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, picking up seven first-innings wickets and an impressive 11 overall. Although England rode him close to five overs in his 51 overs, that was in part a tribute to the irony of his ways – batting, before being dismissed – epitomized by the carrom ball that struck Zak Crawley. in the first innings.

The statistics are so strong that the man has stopped fighting back. In 34 Tests at home, Chris Woakes has taken 137 wickets at a world-class average of 21.59. In 20 matches overseas, however, those figures stand at 36 in the world at 51.88 – and he had given up hope of ever being called up to hot spots when he was overlooked for the tour of India earlier this year. But circumstances change quickly, and with Anderson and Stuart Broad gone, and Stokes’ hamstring depriving the seam attack of one of its wiser old heads, the value of Woakes’ experience outweighs any doubts about his impact in such situations. He is here deservedly, and, it must be said, after a good summer as the leader of the attack in England – 24 wickets at 20.25 against the West Indies and Sri Lanka to ensure that he will start this campaign with faith in his ways, and the confidence of his team-mates.

Team news: Pakistan bring back the big guns of bowling

Shan Masood was in the spotlight after the Bangladesh series loss, but he is still alive as captain for now, and he is part of the top seven with the likes of Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Co. The most notable changes come in the bowling attack, where Aamer Jamal returns from the backcourt, and will reunite with Afridi and Naseem in what is widely known as Pakistan’s premier seam attack. Khurram Shahzad, who took six wickets in the second Test against Bangladesh, missed out as he failed to fully recover from a hamstring injury.

Pakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Shan Masood (capt), 4 Babar Azam, 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 7 Salman Ali Agha, 8 Aamer Jamal, 9 Shaheen Afridi, 10 Naseem Shah, 11 Abrar Ahmad

England welcomed Crawley to the top of the order, although he will not be in the slips due to a broken finger he picked up in the summer. Stokes, however, missed out again, out of caution as he works his way back to full strength after tearing a hamstring in August. Carse will start in the place where his Durham team-mate Wood has excelled over the past two years, alongside Atkinson and Woakes – playing his first subcontinent Test since 2016 – while Jack Leach will make his first appearance since visiting India. in February, along with fellow Somerset man Shoaib Bashir.

In England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Jack Leach, 11 Shoaib Bashir

Tone and conditions: Greener than usual in Multan

The Multan pitch has grass but it was mowed on Saturday afternoon. England do not expect the ball to bounce back as it did on their last visit in 2022, as the square and outfield are much greener. However, there may be a low bounce, judging by the practice threads.

Math and trivia

England won by 26 runs when they last visited Multan in December 2022 and was the most recent Test hosted at the venue.
Overall, Pakistan have won three of the last six Tests in Multan, including another tour of England in 2005-06. India won by an innings in 2004, and a draw against the West Indies ended the set.
Joe Root needs 71 to surpass Alastair Cook’s tally of 12,472 Test runs, the most by an England batsman, and the fifth most by any player in Test history.

Quotes

“We almost won last time but we let the games slide, we know how they play but at the end of the day we have to see how we will deal with it. named the XI.”
Pakistan captain, Shan Masood he believes his side have the tools to atone for their 3-0 defeat two years ago.

“We have the ability to fill that void left by Jimmy. Obviously it’s never going to be easy, but it’s going to be a good opportunity for those guys to learn and throw under different conditions.”
Ollie Pope he believes that England’s seam attack can rise to the challenge in unusual situations.

Andrew Miller is the UK editor for ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket

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