England Tour of Pakistan
Bilal Ahsan Dar
In continuation of the England cricket team’s tour of Pakistan in September and October this year to play seven Twenty20 International (T20I) matches as a preparatory series before the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the English team returned to Pakistan to play three Test matches. The Test matches form part of the 2021–2023 ICC World Test Championship.
The three-match series is a historic one for Pakistan, who are set to welcome England for the first time since 2005 to play Test cricket. Rawalpindi will host the first Test (Dec 01 – Dec 05) before the action moves to Karachi (Dec 09 – Dec 13) and then Multan (Dec 17 – Dec 21).
The tour was originally scheduled to take place last year but ECB withdrew unilaterally citing security reasons.
Pakistan has taken some big calls as far as announcement of the Test squad is concerned.
One of the notable omissions is Yasir Shah, the leg spinner. Shah has the fifth most Test wickets for the country, but it appears the selectors are looking for the 36-year-old’s successor. The selection committee has preferred the uncapped leggie Abrar Ahmed over Shah – a move that could pay dividends judging on his ability to confuse batters with his mixture of legspin and wrong’uns. Ahmed may only have 13 firstclass matches to his name, but the 24-year-old has a total of 76 wickets at an average just north of 25 and, on recent form, he looks a solid selection.
While Mohammad Nawaz and Nauman Ali are likely to be the two main spinners, Ahmed will provide skipper Babar Azam with another option should conditions suit the slower bowlers.
Shaheen Afridi, who is nursing a knee injury, isn’t a part of the 18-member squad. Haris Rauf, who has made a name for himself in white ball cricket, is all set to make his Test debut. It would be interesting to see whether Rauf can translate his white-ball form into Tests. Rauf’s ability to swing the old ball could be a weapon that Babar would love to exploit.
Apart from Rauf, the likes of Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jr and Naseem Shah are likely to battle it out for two or possibly three pace spots in each Test.
