Heading into the first Test against Pakistan, England’s veteran pacer James Anderson and the rest of the squad are pleased to take signals from the conditions, while maintaining Brendon McCullum’s assertion earlier in the week that, however, things pan out, a draw is not on the Three Lions’ agenda.
The series will kick off with the first Test in Rawalpindi on December 1 followed by the next two matches in Multan and Karachi. Rawalpindi will host the first Test (1-5 December) before the action moves to Karachi (9-13 December) and Multan (17-21 December) for the subsequent games. England will play the first Test series in Pakistan in 17 years.
Anderson is the only member of this England touring squad to have played international cricket in Pakistan prior to this series. Given his absence of red-ball action on that tour and the time between visits, Anderson is reluctant to play the role of wise old sage when it comes to predicting how things could pan out.
“No, not at all. Seventeen years is a long time. It would be wrong if I said ‘the pitch is going to play like this, or this is what to expect. It’s a completely different team we’re playing against, completely different conditions,” Anderson said when asked if he had anything to pass on as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
“It’s about adapting when we get out there. We talk a little bit about the opposition but mainly concentrate on what we do well – that’s what we did in the summer. We don’t know how it’s going to play. Traditionally it is flat. We’ve seen Tests in recent times,” the pacer added.
The measurement of England’s transformation will be dictated by the varying conditions over the next month and over this first Rawalpindi Test match.
“Just looking at the pitch out here and the outfield, it looks quite lush so whether reverse will play a huge part here, I’m not sure, at this particular ground. But we will try and cover all bases and make sure we’ve got options, if and when we need them,” he said.
English seamer said that the Three Lions need to play their best game to get anything out of the upcoming series against Pakistan.
“They’ve (Pakistan) got all areas covered with pace, and their batting I think is really strong…We want to make sure [that] we’ve got plans for all of them,” Anderson said. (ANI)
This report is filed by ANI news service. TheNewsMill holds no responsibility for this content.
