Sports Bulletin Report
RAWALPINDI: The organizers set all the thing at the right spots to start the historical three-match Test Series with Pindi Test, which will be kicked off from Thursday (December1, 2022) at Pindi Cricket Stadium Rawalpindi, as the both teams are determined to play positive, entertaining and result oriented cricket.
England will play Test series after 17 years on the soil of Pakistan, as the 2nd Test will be in Multan (9-13 December) and 3rd in Karachi (17-21 December), are part of the ICC World Test Championship. Pakistan are presently fifth, while England are seven on the championship table.
When England last played in Pakistan in 2005 under Michael Vaughan, Inzamam-ul-Haq’s side had won the three-Test series 2-0. Prior to the 2005 series, Nasser Hussain had led England to a six-wicket victory in Karachi in 2000, marking their first Test win in Pakistan in 39 years that also handed Pakistan’s their first-ever Test loss in Karachi.
Since the 2005 series and due to situation beyond the Pakistan Cricket Board’s control, Pakistan hosted England in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2012 and 2015, winning five of the six Tests.
While the recent past performances in their home Test series makes Pakistan as a favourite, Ben Stokes-led England have also done enough, probably more, to start off with a favourites tag.
Stokes led England to ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 title at Lord’s, while on 13 November in Melbourne, he stroked a sparkling half-century against Pakistan to add the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup title to the collection. During their home summer season, England defeated New Zealand 3-0 and South Africa 2-1 in Brendon McCullum’s maiden series as head coach.
On the ICC rankings charts, England is ranked fourth, while Pakistan in sixth – 11 points behind. If Pakistan wins the series 2-0, they’ll move to 99, while England will slip to 99. In the scenario of Pakistan winning the series 1-0, Pakistan will rise to 97 points and England will drop to 100 points.
In the ICC player rankings for Test batters, Root is the No.1 ranked batter, while Babar Azam is ranked number-three. 16th ranked Mohammad Rizwan, 20th-ranked Abdullah Shafique, 21st-ranked Ben Stokes and 25th-ranked Azhar Ali are the other batters from either side to feature inside the top-25.
Amongst the bowlers, fifth-ranked James Anderson will start as the highest-ranked bowler from either side. Naseem Shah is Pakistan’s highest-ranked bowler in 59th spot.
England squad:
Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Joe Root, James Anderson, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Keaton Jennings, Jack Leach, Liam Livingstone, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, Rehan Ahmed.
Pakistan squad:
Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vice-captain & WK), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood and Zahid Mehmood
Schedule of Tests:
1-5 December – 1st Test, Rawalpindi
9-13 December – 2nd Test, Multan
17-21 December – 3rd Test, Karachi
