Their 10-wicket thrashing of the hosts in the fourth and final Test at The Oval on Sunday gave Pakistan, now third in the standings, a chance of climbing to the top of the table.
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England are due to name their squad on Tuesday for the limited-overs matches against Pakistan, which comprise five 50-over games and one Twenty20 internationals.
At The Oval, he managed just 18 runs in the match, dropped a routine catch and annoyed the England management by getting himself fined after confronting the third umpire about his first-innings dismissal to a controversial low catch.
Sharif especially lauded the historic and extraordinary performances of Younis Khan and Yasir Shah who scored double century and took six wickets respectively that consolidated Pakistan Cricket Team’s position in the match.
He now has a grand total of 95 wickets in 16 Tests, and had it not been for his anonymous showings in Pakistan’s two mid-series defeats at Old Trafford and Edgbaston, he would surely have raced past George Lohmann’s 120-year old record and become the fastest bowler to reach 100 wickets in Tests. “It’s a fair result (of the series) in the end”.
The momentum was continued by first-innings centurion Moeen Ali, who lofted Shah high over wide long-on for six and looked in complete command before an uncharacteristically flat-footed prod at the leg-spinner was caught by wicketkeeper Sarfraz for 32 in the penultimate over before lunch.
The pair came together after David Warner (11) fell early threatening yet another Australian batting collapse seen repeatedly in the series. “But just living every day away from your country, without your family and friends, and playing every game away from Pakistan, is really hard”.
With tours to Bangladesh and India coming up, another major concern for England will be their spin bowling; Moeen Ali is unable to give his captain enough of either a wicket taking threat or adequate control with the ball to keep pressure on sides.
Gary Ballance was four not out and Jonny Bairstow 14 not out.
“We’ll need to go back to basics and work incredibly hard again”, the captain added.
The last time England were top of the test rankings was way back in 2011, under Andrew Strauss, and Cook believes his current crop of players can go farther than that. Their partnership lasted almost 5-1/2 hours.
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Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews won the toss and elected to bat first on the first morning Saturday but his decision threatened to backfire when the top order collapsed. The low-key 2-0 win against Sri Lanka at the start of the summer concealed a multitude of sins.
