England will go into Tuesday’s second Test against Pakistan hopeful Ben Stokes can make his return from injury – and intrigued by the decision to play the game on the same surface which last week produced their historic win.
With Stokes undergoing a rigorous bowl on Sunday morning to prove he has fully recovered from his hamstring injury, and Pakistan’s Australian groundsman Tony Hemming installing giant fans at either end of the pitch in an attempt to dry it out, the Multan International Stadium was a blur of activity.
To add to the chaos, Pakistan coach Jason Gillespie could be seen gesticulating unhappily as he and captain Shan Masood pored over a strip imposed on them by the board’s new selection panel.
Just as controversial was the dropping of their No 1 batsman and former captain Babar Azam, whose scores of 30 and five in the first Test took his sequence without a half-century to 18 innings. Once again, Gillespie and Masood had no say in the matter.
Frankly, England will be thrilled that Babar – Pakistan’s biggest sporting celebrity – has been ditched for the rest of the series, along with new-ball pairing Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah. And with first-choice spinner Abrar Ahmed still in hospital with dengue fever, the home side will include at least four changes from the side which lost on Friday by an innings and 47. Even by the standards of Pakistan cricket, it all seems faintly unhinged.
England are hopeful Ben Stokes will able to make his return from injury against Pakistan
Pakistan have made the decision to drop No 1 batsman and former captain Babar Azam
As England go in search of the win that would secure a third successive series victory, their selection issues were mercifully straightforward.
If Stokes – deemed ‘ready to go’ by Jimmy Anderson, England’s bowling coaching consultant – wakes up this morning feeling untroubled by his workout, he will play his first Test since July, against West Indies at Edgbaston, and add power and charisma to a side already boosted by the thrilling manner of their 1-0 lead.
Ollie Pope would hand over the captain’s armband after winning three of his four Tests in charge, but averaging just 27 with the bat, while Chris Woakes would be the most likely to make way, despite a solid performance in his first overseas Test for three and a half years. Clearly, though, the reintegration of Stokes is a no-brainer.
‘He looks great,’ said Anderson. ‘It was disappointing to pick up that injury in the summer, so he’s worked incredibly hard and looks as fit as I’ve ever seen him. The ball’s coming out great, so hopefully he’s good to go this week.’
James Anderson stated that Stokes looks ‘as fit as I’ve ever seen him’ as he nears a return
Stokes underwent a rigorous bowl as he looked to prove he has recovered from injury
Stokes’s first task, assuming his body plays ball, will be to win the toss and bat on a pitch that will be entering its sixth day of use, and ought in theory to help the spinners.
No one could recall if England had ever played successive Tests on the same surface – not least with only three days between games. And while Anderson admitted he thought there ‘might be a rule’ against such practice, the ICC’s playing regulations state only that host venues should ‘present the best possible pitch and outfield conditions for that match’.
Above all, the Pakistan board’s decision smacks of desperation. Traumatised by England’s 823 for seven at five and a half an over in the first Test, they wanted to avoid serving up another pancake.
Yet if the re-used pitch turns, it is England who boast the best spinner in Jack Leach, following his seven wickets in the first Test. And if uneven bounce enters the equation, their seamers – led by the pace and menace of Brydon Carse – look better equipped than Pakistan’s to exploit it.
‘It’s their decision, their conditions, their home game,’ said a slightly nonplussed Anderson. ‘They can do what they want. I don’t know if I’m surprised or not, really.
‘I’m not sure how well they can prepare any different sort of pitch from the one we got last week, so the best way probably to find a result pitch is to use the same one. They’ve watered it and tried to repair it as best as possible, so we’re not sure exactly what we’re going to get. But you’d expect it not to be as flat as it was last week.’
Certainly, England will not be intimidated by the presence in Pakistan’s bet-hedging 16-man squad of three debutants – wicketkeeper Haseebullah Khan, left-arm spinner Mehran Mumtaz, and batting all-rounder Kamran Ghulam.
Pakistan coach Jason Gillespie could be seen gesticulating unhappily as he pored over a strip imposed on them by the board’s new selection panel
And the recalls of seamer Mohammad Ali and leg-spinner Zahid Mehmood will only remind the tourists of their 3-0 win here two years ago, when Ali’s four wickets cost 65 each and Mehmood went at nearly seven an over. Pakistan appearing to be throwing all their pieces in the air, and hoping they land in a coherent order.
Anderson, meanwhile, insisted that the fuss around his late arrival for the first Test because of his golfing commitments in St Andrews was much ado about nothing.
‘I didn’t accept the invite until speaking to Baz [McCullum],’ he said. ‘I am not fully contracted by ECB. He was fine with it, so I was fine with it. I was still in touch with the bowlers, and helped them from afar. We have a great coaching group here who did an amazing job.
‘The last few tours I went on, we didn’t have a bowling coach. It is good for the lads to take some responsibility. In the end it didn’t matter, did it?’
It will be a surprise if, come the end of this game, England don’t feel similarly relaxed.
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