Amir’s team-mates did not all appear united behind his return from the outset, but Wahab made it clear he has their unconditional support.
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Sep 20: England batsman Jonathan Trott and Pakistan fast bowler Wahab Riaz have any angry exchange in the Lord’s nets before the start of the fourth ODI.
The 24-year-old was one of three Pakistan players implicated in a spot-fixing scandal Test match against England at Lord’s six years ago. And while he has relished that responsibility in the recent past, not least at Trent Bridge in last summer’s Ashes when he claimed a career-best 8 for 15 on the opening morning of the fourth Test, Broad knows that the Lord’s surface is unlikely to offer anything approaching the same sort of assistance to England’s quicks.
“He’s a threat, he always has been, hasn’t he?”
“If you look at his bowling speed, swing and control — it’s there”, said Misbah ahead of the Somerset match.
“Our focus and concentration is to win this Test and play as good as we can for our country and win this game”. I want to come back and play a good standard, worldwide standard, so I need to work hard and train hard.
Former England spinner Graeme Swann has stated that Pakistan speedster Mohammad Amir’s return to Test cricket at Lord’s will make him feel sick.
The first no-ball Amir bowled during the 2010 match was so clear that commentators described the delivery as a “massive overstep”. “I would expect Pakistan’s bowlers to pitch the ball up and take it away from him, posting three slips and a gully, while keeping open point, mid-off and extra cover to encourage the drive”. In Dubai, he was giving me plenty.
Having been banned for five years, Amir is now back in the fold, and will spearhead the Pakistan attack at the scene of his faux pas six years previously. It is going to make great viewing.
“I was just doing a bit of grocery shopping when I got the call from national selector James Whitaker – just a standard Thursday morning!”
“That’s the story that I would want to talk about”, he said. “They have lost a few places in the middle order which [brings] pressure”.
On his time in prison, Asif said: “Of course that was very hard. They have broken the rules, should pay the price and not be given a second chance”, Pietersen wrote in his column for “The Telegraph”.
I wish Pakistan luck and I have a big respect for their game after playing in the PSL, so much so that I was honoured when they approached me to help them as a batting consultant on this tour.
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The absence at Lord’s of both Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler is a reminder, depending on a tendency to optimism or pessimism, of the talents England can turn to if they need to down the line or the ones which will be missing in the first instance. This series is there for England to win.
