England retain Playing XI for Oval Test
English selectors seem buoyed by the outstanding performance of their team in the first two test matches of the four test series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755. They have retained the same playing eleven that featured in the first two tests for the third test set to start at the Oval in South London on Tuesday.
The English selectors have reposed their confidence in opener Alastair Cook. He retains his place at the top of the innings. Despite a series of poor scores in the four innings in the first two matches at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston.
However, he is set to have it easy in the third test match of the series at the Oval where batting is generally a lot easier. The ball comes onto the bat at a decent pace with an even bounce, making life easy for the batters.
In such a scenario the left hander has an ideal opportunity of staying at the wicket and fighting his way through with some runs. He would be tackling a tiring Pakistani attack led by Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif, who have shared the load for the beleaguered tourists. Their batsmen cave in insipidly almost every time they set out to bat.
The two A’s have another herculean task at Oval, and they are set to be tested more now than at any time in the current tour.
Even in the two tests against the Australians they found the going easy with the ball seaming all over the place. The trend continued in the first two matches against England.
Alarm bells must have rang loud for them on the last day of the Edgbaston Test as they struggled to make inroads when the hosts went out to chase the 118 run target. The conditions were bright and sunny and the only wicket they took was of Cook, who fell to a ball that kept low and crashed into his stumps.
Other than Cook most of the England players have contributed to the team cause in at least one innings of the series thus far.
Captain Andres Strauss ended his string of low scores with a well made half-century in the second innings taking his team through a tricky chase with great deal of calm and assurance.
The rest of the batting order is also in a decent nick whilst the bowlers have only been tested once in four innings.
They were under the pump in the second innings when the usually frail Pakistani lower order fought back tenaciously to save an innings defeat and then set England a potentially tricky chase of 118 runs on the fourth day.
James Anderson was the star in the first test, while Graeme Swann returned his career best figures in the second innings at Edgbaston. The off-spinner made life miserable for the top and middle order before encountering stubborn resistance from the lower order, including debutant wicket-keeper Zulqarnain Haider and Saeed Ajmal.
The only man who stepped up to give England a really tough time was Zulqarnain. He scored a valiant 88 in the fight back at Edgbaston.
However, the Pakistanis have been rocked by the finger injury that he has sustained on the eve of the Oval test which has affectively ruled him out of the test.
The visitors are also without fast bowler Umar Gul who suffered a hamstring injury at Edgbaston, which has also brought curtains on his test tour.
In the given scenario the hosts start the third test as overwhelming favourites. Only a special performance aided by some shoddiness by the hosts can save Pakistan from a sixth consecutive defeat at the hands of the masters of the game.
The run started from the second test at Old Trafford in 2006 and includes the Oval forfeiture which was later awarded to England.
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