We (England) are about to step up a couple of gears.
Jimmy Anderson will obviously replace Jake Ball, and Ben Stokes will replace Steven Finn.
It's important for Pakistan not to remain prisoners of their original selection.
We were all told that Babar Azam was playing in England with the A team to keep him active and exposed to English conditions in case he was required during this series. It is therefore insanity to refuse to consider him on the basis that he isn't in the squad.
Babar Azam really should replace Shan Masood. There is no hope for him.
I'd like to see Hasan Ali replace Rahat Ali too. The tail is too long and you need the variation provided by a right-arm quick bowler.
We all know what Misbah is like - there will be no changes. And the batting will fail, and 1-0 will become 1-1.
Bigger question is wicket, would it seam around or dry one like lords? - England after loosing 6-0 would know now that they cannot beat us on dry pitches anywhere in the world.
Seaming wicket means win toss bowl first, correct? - we can knock them over as quickly as they can... Both teams cannot catch up if fall behind in first innings.... Pakistan attack will always be threat in second innings...believe me out bowlers have not fully expressed themselves, they will get better as tour progress... Both Rahat and Amir will find there lengths sooner rather than later. Seaming track can only help Amir get back to his best. We have seen him what he can do on green top, even in T20.
In batting front even if they don't bring Babar, just changing order can make significant difference, I mention my order in another thread, here it is:
Azhar - He is best we got to take shine of new ball.
Shan/Sami - Babar is not coming, one of them will play. Sami might be better, because he will stay longer, which is what we want. It's about number of overs not runs what I care about from openers.
Hafeez - little protection is better than no protection. Plus he can play shots, if survive the new ball spell.
YK - There is no way General will be left out or his position disturbed. We are talking about Pakistan, Generals run this country
Shafiq - he is stroke maker, sandwich him between old guys, we want to make some runs up top, plus he can play long innings, before second new ball.
Misbah - He can hold on and play better when ball is 50 overs old as oppose to 30. Lot of runs can be score with old ball, Shafiq can play pace anyway.
Sarfraz - He is also stroke maker. He is gold where he is.
This way we are spreading stroke makers (Hafeez, Shafiq and Sarfraz) throughout the innings rather than clustering them at the end. Plus in UAE it makes sense for best players of spin to play in the middle. Here with poor reflexes it's better to save atleast one for end and push best player of pace atleast one up.
But I doubt anything will change. All I am banking on Misbah winning the 7th toss in last 8. That is critical for Pakistan to win the game against full strength England [emoji1191][emoji1191][emoji1191]
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