First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

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First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Mon May 21, 2018 11:43 am

Played from 21 May at 11am BST.

England and Pakistan drew in the UK two years ago. Both sides are under new captains since then with Cook and Misbah making way for Root and Azhar. Neither side start with the confidence of recent good form, and both are plummeting through the rankings. England after losing on the road to New Zealand and Australia and Pakistan suffering the ignominy of a UAE loss to Sri Lanka.

In 2016, Joe Root was at about his peak and he has plenty to prove this summer after his underachievement down under, as a batter and a leader. Cook went well in 2016 but has struggled since. Vince, Moeen, Hales and Ballance are no longer around for the hosts and there will be doubt over Woakes' retention after his great series last time Pakistan toured here. For the tourists, as well as Misbah's retirement, there is no Younis or Yasir.

The expected hot weather may make this a test of spin and reverse swing rather than the usual early summer virtues of orthodox swing and seam. Lord's can be a bit flat when the overheads are tame. Expect Pakistan to start the series well and don't rule out the draw.

England: Stoneman/Cook/Root/Malan/Bairstow/Stokes/Buttler/Bess/Woakes or Wood/Broad/Anderson.

Pakistan: Azhar/Imam/Sohail/Shafiq/Azam/Sarfraz/Shadab/Faheem/Amir/Abbas/Rahat//Fakhar/Saad/Aslam/Usman.
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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby Dr Cricket » Mon May 21, 2018 5:18 pm

pretty certain this must be the first year I seen where england are not really massive favourites to beat asian sides at home.
think quite few people think it will be tough for England to win the series.
they should beat pakistan but the series hasn't got the usual look of a may series where England would normally thrash the teams and it hardly ever gets much written or much riding on it and the india series is very tough to call, in paper india stronger, but the length of the series, home advantage gives england the edge.

Think the pakistan series might give a clue to the india series then again in 2014 Sri lanka beat england and in the end they beat india 3-1 after going 1-0 down after 2 test.

in reality the pakistan team is pretty poor at the moment not much batting and bowling reliant on Amir, they really shouldn't compete with england in England.
if they get anything out of the series, hard to see how England can beat india considering india will have better batsman and more compete bowling attack coming over.

My gut feeling is telling me that Amir will do a Zaheer khan and get injured because the team is so desperate for him to play at lords.
Not sure Amir is fit but even a 25% amir is probably pakistan best test bowler at the moment.

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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby GGAS » Mon May 21, 2018 6:59 pm

Abbas is pretty handy too, though inexperienced.

It'll be interesting to see how the top order that looked unconvincing against Murtagh will fare against Broad and Anderson.

Agree with Dr C that this series will be a huge clue as to how the India series pans out. If England don't win this one I foresee a loss to India.
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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby Dr Cricket » Mon May 21, 2018 8:21 pm

Yep only him and Shadab khan are in the wickets.
Just from what I seen of him not sure many batsman would be scared of him or plan crazy to combat him.
from that attack only Shadab khan and amir will get the intention.

Although if the conditions are good for bowling and you put in England poor batting line up and then of course Abbas will be an handful considering he kind of reminds me of a good medium pace seam bowler found in county cricket, not sure he would be effective in a flat deck though with not much movement.
have to see how he goes considering he only played 6 test matches.


If anything if I was pakistan selectors or fans I be worried what is going on with amir, jheez just heard he thinking of becoming british just so he can play IPL and play T20 around the world.
Something not right about him at the moment, pakistan need to seriously offer him something so he stays with the team.

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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby Dr Cricket » Mon May 21, 2018 8:23 pm

Hasn't played high quality test cricket either only played against Ireland, WI and Sri lanka so untested in that regard.

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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby m@tt » Mon May 21, 2018 11:06 pm

For England, the only decision is Woakes or Wood.

I'd go with Wood, partly because he's played recently, secondly because he's someone we need to make a decision on. He's someone who has been hyped up whilst out the side, but when he has played he's struggled to match the pace and quality of his white ball bowling. We need to know - is he good enough for our Test XI, if not then move on and try another quick like Olly Stone.

Or they could wuss out and leave Bess on the sidelines - playing five right-arm quicks would be incredibly pointless, but very England!
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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby bigfluffylemon » Mon May 21, 2018 11:08 pm

Nitpick on an otherwise excellent first post AC - shouldn't the date be 24th May?

I'm predicting 1-1 here. Despite the weather and conditions at Lord's, both sides' batting is fragile and their swing and seam bowling in English conditions is strong. I expect one side (or both) to collapse in each test - the honours will go to whichever team collapses less.

Pakistan are inexperienced and have a brittle looking batting line up, but they've had one of the best warm-up/run-ins I can remember a side getting for a May test in England for a long time - three games against county sides including two four-dayers, all three games competitive, plus a full test against a side that gave them a good workout. They'll be about as well-prepared as they can be.

Meanwhile, England seem to be going steadily backwards - compared to this time last summer we have even more question marks over our squad, which hardly seems possible.

By the way, is TRJ still injured?
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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby bigfluffylemon » Mon May 21, 2018 11:09 pm

m@tt wrote:For England, the only decision is Woakes or Wood.

I'd go with Wood, partly because he's played recently, secondly because he's someone we need to make a decision on. He's someone who has been hyped up whilst out the side, but when he has played he's struggled to match the pace and quality of his white ball bowling. We need to know - is he good enough for our Test XI, if not then move on and try another quick like Olly Stone.

Or they could wuss out and leave Bess on the sidelines - playing five right-arm quicks would be incredibly pointless, but very England!


Wood's been one of those players who gets better and better the more he's left out. So many pundits were crying out for his inclusion in the Ashes as an 'X-factor' or 'high pace' bowler, then when he did come back in New Zealand he wasn't much quicker than Broad, and hardly took any wickets...
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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue May 22, 2018 5:55 am

bigfluffylemon wrote:Nitpick on an otherwise excellent first post AC - shouldn't the date be 24th May?


Thanks!

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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby GGAS » Tue May 22, 2018 5:59 pm

Dr Cricket wrote:Yep only him and Shadab khan are in the wickets.
Just from what I seen of him not sure many batsman would be scared of him or plan crazy to combat him.
from that attack only Shadab khan and amir will get the intention.

Although if the conditions are good for bowling and you put in England poor batting line up and then of course Abbas will be an handful considering he kind of reminds me of a good medium pace seam bowler found in county cricket, not sure he would be effective in a flat deck though with not much movement.
have to see how he goes considering he only played 6 test matches.


If anything if I was pakistan selectors or fans I be worried what is going on with amir, jheez just heard he thinking of becoming british just so he can play IPL and play T20 around the world.
Something not right about him at the moment, pakistan need to seriously offer him something so he stays with the team.



Agree with pretty much all of this. I like the look of Abbas (with early season English conditions in mind) but it will help him enormously that he bowls alongside Amir who is so good at keeping things tight and building pressure. Hadn't heard that about him and the IPL, would be a shockwave through Pakistan cricket. Their new policy of allowing just one franchise t20 league in addition to the PSL will probably push him further in that direction. May well get others thinking too.
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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby andy » Wed May 23, 2018 2:17 pm

Root's confirmed Bess will debut, so IMO Wood will get the nod over Woakes
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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby sussexpob » Wed May 23, 2018 4:35 pm

I am not even coming close to understanding how Wood is even a consideration for being picked? He has hardly played since 2015, a year when lets face it, he bowled ok in but was hardly the fiersome pace man he was billed to be, and in fact looked pretty tame at points. We then add in about 3 years since of virtually no cricket, the 3 tests hes played where he averages comfortably over a 100 a wicket, and mostly bowling not much over medium pace....

For a start, how many times in all forms of cricket in the last few years has Wood bowled a solid 40-50 overs at good pace? Whats the likely hood that he breaks down in this test if asked to bowl that? If he able to bowl that many overs, is he able to do so at hostile pace ranges?

If he was a test veteran with a good solid average and history of taking wickets regularly, then Id still be wanting him to play half a season of county cricket to be considered. Throwing him in now seems like a bad idea. We can maybe take his 6 wickets for Durham vs Derbyshire with a pinch of salt too; arguably the worst batting line up in the domestic scene, on a last day where there was very little prospect of a result. In the first innings he went for 1/nearly 100

Plus Woakes bats. Im team Chris...
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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby sussexpob » Wed May 23, 2018 4:40 pm

I can imagine that the first 20 overs is going to be critical for both sides. Batting question marks at the top for both, if either teams can get at the middle early we can see some lower scores. I have a feeling that the usual suspects of Anderson and Broad will probably win the series for England, but all bets are off on a strong prediction.

I can see both teams winning a test by a landslide. I can see domination from either side in both tests. Tough one to call, both teams have the ability to play badly, both teams have some talent that could stand out and make a difference. But I think home advantage should tell.

Ideally for England's perspective, a series loss with a few of their questionable status players stepping up and doing a job will be more valuable then winning the series.
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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Thu May 24, 2018 8:38 am

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Pakistan: Azhar/Imam/Sohail/Shafiq/Azam/Sarfraz/Shadab/Faheem/Amir/Abbas/Rahat//Fakhar/Saad/Aslam/Usman.


Missed Hasan Ali out of the squad. Cricinfo suggesting he might come in for Rahat from the Ireland XI.
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Re: First Test: England v Pakistan, Lord's.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Thu May 24, 2018 8:43 am

Forecast has changed for St Johns Wood. Some cloud with sunny spells predicted with perhaps rain in the evening. Various types of cloud until the back end of the game when there might be some heavy rainstorms.
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