Pakistan Embark on Tour of England
Pakistan cricket team has arrived in England on an extremely challenging three month long tour, in which they will face two of the strongest teams in International cricket in a Test, ODI and Twenty20 series that will conclude in September.
Deprived of playing in their home grounds due to the volatile security situation in their country, the Pakistanis would have to gear up for the task of playing their greatest nemesis in recent years, Australia, who have won a staggering 12 tests on the trot against them, a run that started in Brisbane in 1999.
The two test series will be staged at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, and Headingley Leeds. The first test will start on the 13th of next month.
The Pakistan squad, led by Shahid Afridi, left Colombo yesterday, where they were staying after participating in the Asia Cup One-Day tournament, in which the team lost two matches narrowly to eventual champions India and Sri Lanka, and were hence knocked out of the race for the final.
Afridi hailed his team’s performance in Sri Lanka saying that he was happy that the team fought hard despite losing at the end. “I am satisfied with the team’s performance because we fought hard in both the matches and showed that if we put extra effort we can beat the best sides,” Afridi said as the team prepared to leave for England.
Afridi himself had an outstanding Asia Cup, especially with the bat, scoring two centuries in the three matches his team played, including a career best 124 against Bangladesh. He was declared man of the tournament.
The man known as ‘Boom Boom’ Afridi for his belligerent batting claimed that the team would have to work very hard in England, as the two teams they are set to play against are very tough opponents. “It is a challenging tour, as we will face two tough teams, I have told everyone to give extra effort and take every opportunity that comes our way”.
He added that the newly crowned world champions in the T20 format, England, have shown remarkable improvement in limited overs cricket and would be a force to reckon with in the coming years in the shorter formats of the game. “No doubt England have shown remarkable improvement and the way they are playing in the ODI series against Australia they are a united team and will be very tough to beat on their grounds”.
Meanwhile, former cricket players and officials continue to criticise the team selection for the tour of England, which does not include seasoned batsman and former captain Younis Khan. Younis has been in smashing form for Surrey County, yet inexplicably finds himself ousted from the test line-up, after his indefinite suspension was revoked by Pakistan Cricket Board earlier in the month.
In his absence and the retirement of Mohammad Yousuf, Pakistan’s middle-order looks wafer-thin, with the team relying on all-rounder Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi to shore up the batting along with the Akmal brothers.
The rest of the batting line-up is very inexperienced, with Umar Akmal with six test matches and Azhar Ali yet to make his debut.
The selectors have recalled Yasir Hameed, who started his test career with a bang some seven years ago scoring two centuries against Bangladesh in his debut test in Karachi.
However, his performances tapered off and he was dropped from the team after his uninspiring performances in the 2007 test tour of India. Thus, it remains to be seen if he can adjust to the tricky batting conditions in England.
All in all, the tour of England promises to be a real baptism of fire for the young Pakistan team that is being led by Afridi, who himself returns to the test arena after a self imposed hiatus of four years. The task is extremely challenging for them, and only time will tell if they are capable of causing some jitters in the English and Australian camps, especially in the test format.
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