Daily Times

The red Duke leather ball
bounces outside off stump on the green pitch; the batsman goes effortlessly for a cover drive; the ball swings in late and hits the white batting pads. A cool breeze swirls through the London sky in Regents Park where the famous, the classic ground owned by Marylebone Cricket Club is located: the Lords Cricket Ground. The 11 men gathered on the perfect, the ever-so-beautiful grass — which has hosted legends from Tendulkar to Lara — appeal for a Leg Before Wicket (LBW). The batsman, stunned, glares at the umpire, and straining his eyes, in a slight motion, the umpire holds his finger straight up — or crooked if it’s the famous Billy Bowden — and the 11 Pakistanis whoop in sheer joy.

On the other side, the English batsman walks away, glum, as he knows he would face the exasperated and disappointed faces of the members of the Marylebone Cricket Club as he walks through the famous Lords gallery. And joyous, Amir would be on the road to his memorable comeback on the same ground where he once did injustice to the “gentlemen’s game.”

Here’s to the cricket series: Pakistan vs England!

As a club cricketer, and a true cricket fan, this is what my imagination cooks up, as excitement fill up my body, with every second leading up to what I believe would be a historic series between the two great cricketing nations: my homeland Pakistan and the English Lions. There are several reasons to be excited about such a series. The series includes four Test Matches, five One Day Internationals and one T20 International. The tournament begins on July 14, 2016, and will conclude with the only T20 on September 7, 2016. The “clash” shall take place on the English soil, one of the most significant reasons to make this battle a memorable one for the cricketing world.

Over decades, it has been known worldwide to professional cricketers and passionate fans of cricket that the subcontinent has been a heavenly location for batsmen, providing them a comfortable bounce of the ball on flat pitches, to loft the ball over the bowler for a six, or place the ball within the fielder placed in the covers with an elegant stroke. On the other hand, the pitches – grassy — provided overseas such as in Australia or England are a delight for the bowlers, but a threat to the batsmen when a bouncer whiskers past them. If you are a cricket lover, you may remember the new but terrifying Mitchell Johnson’s moustache, and his bouncers that roared past the English batsmen.

In addition to that, one cannot forget the famous spell bowled by Wahab Riaz to Australian batsman Shane Watson during the World Cup that took place in Australia and New Zealand in 2015. Remembering that spell, I grin, recalling bouncers and short balls within the ribcage to Watson by Riaz, with Watson struggling on the backfoot and Riaz blowing a kiss! That spell was just…wow!

Hence, you see, there are multiple examples to demonstrate the dangers of the some pitches — such as that in England — towards the batsmen.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has yet only announced the Test squad, which has rigorously trained with the Pakistan Army in a boot camp, which took place in Kakul. During the peak summer month of Pakistan! The camp’s objective throughout was to improve the team’s fitness. After that, the team worked on their skills under their newly appointed coach, Micky Arthur. As stated by the team manager, Intikhab Alam, Arthur has provided a stable and useful structure to the team with a strict attitude. Arthur has great expectations from the team, which, in his opinion, is one of the best in the cricketing world. The coach looks toward decreasing the gap between good and bad performances, taking into account the state in which the team performs. As stated by Arthur, either Pakistan performs very poor, or unbelievably good. The Test squad departed early for England to get used to the conditions, and play two practice games against Somerset and Sussex.

As a result of all this training of the Pakistan cricket team, it can be described as the new reformed Pakistan cricket team: extremely fit, united and talented. To sum up: there can’t be a better-prepared Pakistan cricket team than what has been put together for Pakistan’s tour of England 2016.

The backbone of Pakistan’s struggle of winning against the odds would be its bowling attack. And that consists of Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Sohail Khan, Imran Khan Jr., Yasir Shah and Zulfiqar Babar. In all probability, Amir and Riaz would lead the bowling attack with Ali, Khan and Imran providing support. Shah would come in handy on the last two days of a test match with his magnificent leg break on a rugged pitch. Babar can be kept on the side, with a meager chance, taking the weather and condition of pitch in consideration. In the given conditions, it is most likely that Pakistan would attack the English batsmen with pace, and to do that, they would squeeze in as many fast bowlers as they could, with a good spinner to do his trick, most likely Shah given his success against the English batsmen last year. The two stars to shine in such matches are most probably Amir and Riaz. These two bowlers should be able to pose a serious threat to the English top and middle order, with their different but useful bowling styles.

Amir, a face of controversy but filled up with a delightful amount of terrific talent, is the one to watch out this summer. Amir has had a pleasing comeback on English soil when he demolished the stumps and frightened the Somerset batsman in a practice match. Amir’s stats against Somerset were incredible for such a controversial comeback, with the young star taking three wickets for 36 runs in 11 overs. Amir, a left-handed bowler, was seen nipping the ball in towards a right-handed batsman, whereas for a left-handed bowler, it is natural for him to swing it out with an angle when bowling to a right-handed batsman. Amir, overall, has the ability to swing the ball late, which can be a real danger. Playing a swing delivered right out of the hand can be easy for a batsman at such a level, but it was the late swing that left Somerset batsman and former England player Marcus Trescothick stunned.

Amir also has the ability to change his swing without letting the batsman judge a noticeable difference in Amir’s wrist and action when the ball is delivered. He has also shown his class with his splendid performances in the Asia Cup and World T20 Cup 2016. Keeping his talent in mind, Amir has a lot more to give to the series than his performance. He has been under the microscope ever since the build up to the series. The reason behind this is because he’d make his comeback to test cricket with the opening match that is being held at the “Mecca” of cricket, the Lords Cricket Ground.

As mentioned earlier, the ground has hosted several greats, and it has been every cricketer’s dream to bag a great performance in that ground; walk towards the ground in the gallery facing the Marylebone Cricket Club’s haughty members; look towards the field from the classic balconies (where Ganguly once stood shirtless); and most importantly bring up their name on the honours board placed respectively in both the “home” and “away” dressing rooms.

Not only does the ground possess elegant glamour, but it is also home to the infamous no-balls bowled by Amir at the age of 18, in the much talked about case of match-fixing. The dark history that put the gentlemen’s game to shame would always stay with Amir, but it would also challenge him during the series especially in the opening test match. Amir is in the spotlight again. Alastair Cook, captain of the England Cricket Team, has claimed that Amir, most probably, would be exposed to a hostile reception by the English fans. No one can be sure about such a situation as the bowler was welcomed pleasantly in the practice match against Somerset. To tackle such a situation, Amir is fully backed up by his teammates and management. Arthur has shown immense trust in the bowler; Riaz considers him a younger brother; Intikhab Alam (team manager) plans to keep Amir away from the boundaries; and lastly, the top officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board, including the chairman, have met with Amir to inform him of their expectations, and put him at ease following all the speculations. Will Amir make history or will the English batsmen become history?

Next comes another leader of the bowling attack but with a completely different approach to accomplish his task within bowling: Wahab Riaz. Wahab Riaz and Muhammad Amir are like Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan! They are poles apart but they complement each other well. Riaz lacks the beautiful and mind-boggling swing of Amir, but fearlessly whacks the ball on the pitch with fierce aggression and pace. Proof for this, as said before, is manifested within Riaz’s spell against Watson in the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

Riaz has the evident skill to pressurise the batsman down to the wire with aggression in his own nature, and pacey deliveries that can be converted into deadly bouncers on the English pitches. He is a great asset for the Pakistan Cricket Team once the ball turns old and reverse swing comes in. Riaz has also shown honesty off the pitch with a “ruthless” statement in which he claimed that England’s middle order is fragile. And this statement is seen to be true with England playing out an inexperienced middle order such as the likes of Garry Balance or James Vince. Both of these batsmen are not very mature to face such a deadly attack. After all, Pakistan is mostly dependent on its bowling.

The English bowling attack isn’t much behind in talent, but it does lack one high quality bowler: James Anderson. Anderson had an amazing test series against Sri Lanka where he was the highest wicket taker and gained the number one rank in the ICC test bowling rankings. On the other hand, England would be playing Stuart Broad, who with Anderson has taken up the English fast bowling attack to a whole better and new level. Broad is currently ranked number three in the ICC test bowling rankings, and can be remembered with some exceptional performances last year in the UAE. He also topped the ICC rankings recently. Broad will be accompanied by Chris Woakes, a good to go bowler, and Jake Ball (a Nottinghamshire bowler) who is yet to make his debut. Just like Pakistan, England will be entering the series with a single specialist spinner, Steven Finn, who can be accompanied by Moeen Ali, a fine all-rounder.

Coming towards the batsmen, Pakistan in recent times has not been quite good with their batting performances. With Arthur coming in and camps taking place to improve technique, Pakistan’s batting lineup has had phenomenal preparation with 10 days in Lahore and three weeks in England. Most of the Pakistani squad has also been part of the 2010 tour. But overall, the conditions are in the batsmen’s favour. Leaving such stats aside, the names in the Pakistani squad are some that the fans can count on, such as the two greats Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan, who have truly redefined the phrase, “Age doesn’t matter.” Mohammad Hafeez can bring in experience along with Misbah and Younis. Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali and Sarfraz Ahmed strengthen the middle order in addition to Ali’s two tons against Sussex and Somerset.

Looking upon England, their batting line-up consists of quality and talent, but lacks maturity. The top order with Alastair Cook opening and Joe Root at number three delivers a sense of insecurity to the Pakistani bowlers, but after that, there should be no worries for the Pakistani bowlers. Johnny Bairstow has had a great time with the bat against the Sri Lankans, and he would be looking forward to continue that. Alex Hales can be a good possibility, and Moeen Ali provides depth to the English batting order. The Pakistani bowlers shall look forward to tumbling down of Root and Cook for a successful start. Because if the young and classy Root, and the highly accomplished Cook with 10,000 plus runs under his belt get going, matters can get tough for the green team, as Cook is terrific with grinding the opponent down, given proof of his performance in the UAE last year against Pakistan. Pakistan can surely sigh with relief that England is playing without Ben Stokes, a top class all-rounder who provides valuable strength to the England batting order. James Vince and Garry Balance have a strong opportunity to prove themselves, but Root and Cook have to lead upfront with all their capabilities.

Off the field, England has been attacking the greens mentally, whether it is the team itself or some former players. Cook has warned of a not-so-warm reception for Amir, but has also stated that the teams should stay away from all the hype and focus on the game. Arthur seems confident of his ability to get Amir to play to his maximum capability. Former English spinner Graeme Swann has informed the media that Amir’s comeback to the game makes him sick. On the other hand, Cook has praised Amir, but believes the punishment should have been a ban for life. Riaz fires up his aggression by indicating England’s fragile middle order, and praises its bowling attack within press conferences.

To conclude, Pakistan is entering the England series with a refined team under the coaching of Micky Arthur. The team, under the new coach, would be displaying new traits: unity, fitness and discipline. The batsmen would have to work on playing the ball late to conquer the swing, unlike their technique in Pakistan in which they would have to push the ball hard. Riaz and Amir would look upon making their mark with support from the rest of the bowlers with exciting, unpredictable and fast bowling. Yasir Shah, the fourth best-ranked bowler in the world, would look to conquer with his first test series outside Asia. Amir with the crown on his head would own the spotlight with a comeback on the same ground where he put cricket to shame.

A new Pakistan cricket team would be in action at Lords. England would look forward to tackle them with home advantage, and the match experience they gained by playing against Sri Lanka. England would be highly dependent upon Cook and Root for their batting, and would greatly miss Ben Stokes and James Anderson within their squad. Either the English batsmen would take advantage of their opportunities, or the Pakistani bowlers would end some careers within this series. A wonderful and highly anticipated clash awaits the two teams — the strong and fearless English Lions and a rejuvenated Pakistan Cricket Team that awaits the series like a tiger awaits its prey after long starvation.

Pakistan’s tour of England 2016 is for those who seek pleasure in cricket.

The writer is a Lahore-based high school student, and a club-level cricketer