“It should be exciting, we’ve got a really good team and we will put up a great fight against England”.
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Pakistan briefly rose to No. 2 in the ICC Test rankings – they are now third, a place above England – after beating England 2-0 in the UAE past year and Wahab pointed to Misbah-ul-Haq, who stepped up to replace Salman Butt as captain after the 2010 spot-fixing crisis and oversee the rebuilding of the team, as the main reason for their recent success.
“I know him from playing against him in the winter (in the Pakistan Super League) and he came across as a nice guy whenever I spoke to him”.
“You want me to tell you the plans so it can be available for him?” asked Wahab.
The first Test between England and Pakistan begins on Thursday at Lord’s.
Being in his teens at the time, Amir was always given the benefit of the doubt that elder members of the Pakistan team prayed on his youthfullness to involve him in the bowling of deliberate no-balls.
Pakistan paceman Wahab Riaz portrayed England’s middle order as a potential pressure point on Tuesday, but Root rejected the notion that they were a work in progress.
“I think that’s probably harsh”, he said.
“I don’t think I have got the power (to control crowd reaction). Joe Root is one of their best players and he has to take the responsibility, so that’s why he is at No.3”, he said.
Pietersen rejected the job offer because of his busy schedule and because of his loyalty to England, for whom he played more than 100 Tests and 136 one-day global over the course of his decade-long worldwide career.
“It was a hard time, I went to jail and was banned and things got worse and worse”. Some of the former England players have also critisised the fast bowler’s involvement with Cricket who felt that “Amir had crushed the morality of the game”.
“(Coach) Trev (Bayliss) had said all week “the opening ball will set the tone and win the Test match” – so I thought everything was on me.
“This is the biggest challenge for us in a long time”, Misbah said during the Investec Test series launch at Lord’s Cricket Ground.
That, in turn, spells danger for an England team who were thrashed by 405 runs during last summer’s Lord’s Test against Australia, and also succumbed 2-0 to Pakistan on the flat decks of the UAE last winter.
“He is just as quick, and as competitive as ever”.
“If it’s cloudy weather, the ball starts to swing more”, Wahab explained.
“You are stepping into the unknown – but that can give you a bit extra. It was frustration and he tried to take out on me”.
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Blooding an uncapped batsman against Pakistan’s attack would have brought its own risks; this was the conundrum England had left themselves after the gamble to stick with Nick Compton – while it was not without reason it was a gamble – backfired as he limped through the Sri Lanka series.
