England’s bowling will struggle in Ashes: Salman Butt
It is amazing how one match can change the mindset and confidence level within a team. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salman-c88163 Butt after beating England in the 3rd test at the Oval has come out and said that England would have to improve their bowling department if they are to win against Australia later this year in the Ashes.
The same English attack had unsettled Pakistan’s batting in the first 2 test matches and Salman’s opening partner Imran Farhat had claimed that it would be tough for Australia to beat England in the Ashes. However, the win at Oval has changed almost everything. At present, the Pakistani captain is adamant that England need to work hard on their bowling.
He said that English bowlers have been good this season but that has a lot to do with home conditions. Salman added that considering the hard bouncy pitches in Australia and lack of cloud cover; it is unlikely that the English attack would have the same amount of assistance which is why they will struggle. The Pakistani captain went on to say that regardless of England’s bowling line, it is never easy to take on Australia in their own backyard and it will not be different for England when they travel down under later this year.
Salman Butt said that the Aussies only know how to attack the opposition. He added that the simple way to cancel that out is counter-attack. Butt said that he is not a veteran of the game but he has played against the world champions on a number of occasion and knows that they beat the team mentally first and then go in for the kill. Salman said that his first test as captain was against Australia and was definitely his biggest test. Pakistan managed to win that match by 3 wickets, but Salman said that he did not take the win to his head. Butt said that had there been more matches in the series, Australia would have come back hard on Pakistan. Salman went on to say that he would have loved to have more matches to play against Australia, because that would have tested his captaincy in terms of coping against Australia’s counter-attack. Salman Butt said that there was plenty of time to test his mettle in the game.
England will start their Ashes defence against Australian in November. Their first tour match will be against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Western-Australia-c865 on November 5th. His men will play 4 practice games leading up to the first test match on the 25th of November in Brisbane which will be followed by the 2nd test on the 3rd of December at Adelaide.
The 3rd test of the series will be played at Perth from the 16th of December. That would be followed by the all important Boxing Day test on 26th of December in Melbourne and the final one would be held in Sydney on the 3rd of January.
The much awaited Ashes series will be followed by two match T20 series. The tour does not end there as the teams will lock horns once again in a gruelling 7 match ODI series.
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