Paul Collingwood denies Pakistani pacers are ‘the best thing since sliced bread’
Pakistan will take on England in the upcoming four match test series. The first test match will start from the 29th of July 2010 in Trent Bridge, Nottingham. English star batsman Paul Collingwood has backed his batsman against the strong Pakistani bowling line up. The boys in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Green-c60723 will be relying heavily on their pace attack. Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul will lead the attack for Pakistan. Australia’s star studded batting line up had no answers to the quality seam bowling of Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer. Media reports have suggested that it will be very tough for English batsmen to negotiate Pakistan’s pace attack.
Paul Collingwood has however, played down the hype surrounding Pakistan’s pace attack. The veteran batsman believes that English batsmen have all the necessary ingredients to deal with any pace attack in the world.
Salman Butt in his last interview labelled his new-ball-pair as the best bowling attack of the world. He said that Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer are supplemented well by Umar Gul and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 series, doesn’t agree with the Pakistani captain and believes it’s an overstatement to call the Green attack as the world’s best bowling attack.
“I don't want to go overboard on 'these guys are the best thing since sliced bread' - or http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wasim-Akram-c96292, or this, that and the other", Collingwood told reporters at Loughborough. "If we can get through those periods where it can be really tricky, I think we can get on top of them. I think they have got a lot of talent. But to say they're the number one bowling attack in the world I would say was over the mark. They have come up in conditions recently where it's done a fair bit”.
Collingwood admitted that Pakistan’s bowling attack has plenty of talent, but he stressed that English batsmen can handle them with ease and rock solid technique. He said that any bowling attack can receive help from weather conditions and his team-mates will have an added advantage of bowling and batting in home conditions.
Pakistan’s bowling attack came under the limelight after their brilliant bowling went through the Australian batsmen like a hot knife through butter. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 was bowled out for 88 runs in the first innings of the second test match played in Headingley. Ricky Ponting after winning the toss gambled with weather conditions and opted to bat first. Collingwood believes Australian bowlers would have received the same results if they would have opted to bowl first.
"I guess if they [Australia] got those same conditions on the first day they would have caused a lot of problems," he said. "http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 have got skill, and we're going to have to be very careful. But I still think we can handle what they're going to throw at us".
England in recent times has improved as a test team. After winning the Ashes at home, the Blue boys levelled a series against the Proteas in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757. After playing Pakistan, England will board the plane to Australia in order to defend the Ashes trophy. It will be a litmus test for English batsmen. If they can perform well against quality Pakistan seam bowling, they will enter the Ashes series full of confidence and hope.
England will play a four test match series against Pakistan, which will be followed by two T20s and Five ODI series. England’s recent form makes them favourites to win this challenge but with “consistent unpredictability” of Pakistan, nothing can be guessed or judged for sure.
Collingwood said his team is confident and are in good form. “Everybody in the team is very confident that we can do it this time round", Collingwood said. "That's genuine confidence. We've had a good 18 months. We've had the building blocks, continued to grow and get things right. I think we're ready. It really has come at a time when we can say we'll be as ready as we can ever be. We've just got to make sure in these next two months we continue in that same manner".
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