Rashid was given the call alongside fit-again Ben Stokes and James Anderson as England look to bounce back from the 75-run first Test defeat at Lord’s.
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After winning their first Test at Lord’s, Pakistani players, led by veteran batsman Younus Khan, did a series of push-ups to celebrate their triumph and pay tribute to army who helped them during a fitness camp before the tour. “Now it’s over he can really be more effective in the Pakistan team”, insisted Misbah ahead of the second Test at Old Trafford, which starts on Friday.
“Yasir, who returned figures of six for 72 and four for 69, has leapfrogged Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, and England’s fast bowling pair of James Anderson (who missed the Test due to an injury) and Stuart Broad into the top spot after his performance earned him 32 points”, the International Cricket Council said in a release. But coach Trevor Bayliss gives credence to the notion of England returning fire with two spinners of their own this summer.
England have always been reluctant to field two spinners at home, where pitches in recent years have tended to favour faster bowlers.
That made him the first spinner to take 10 wickets in a Lord’s Test since England’s Derek Underwood in 1974 and just the sixth in all.
Australia and India now take the top two places in the test team rankings, while Pakistan and England are third and fourth respectively.
It won’t be forgotten easily but I think we should let it go and not hold it against the team or the player.
It was therefore over to Jonny Bairstow, batting stoically against type, and Chris Woakes – England’s hero with the ball in this match – to try to keep hope alive.
Captain Alastair Cook provided one beacon of resistance with a reasonably sprightly 81 in the first innings, passing Sunil Gavaskar’s mark of 9,607 runs to ensure his place in the record books as the most prolific opening batsman in the history of Test cricket.
“We’ve got to talk about it”.
I thought Ballance batted a bit better in the second innings at Lord’s, but there’s some pressure on Hampshire’s James Vince.
We want to pick the best spinners we have.
Vince’s strokeplay is pleasing on the eye, but Bayliss added: “In the end, it will be the number of runs that determines his longevity in the team”. Ask anyone who has been in that situation, it’s hard to go out and play your natural game.
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Anderson bowled 22 overs against Durham, taking 3 for 58, having been ruled out of the first Test after suffering a stress fracture of his right shoulder blade although he had come very close to playing but the majority of the selectors went with the advice of the medical team. In comparison, Pakistan hadn’t played a Test match in more than six months – and were coming into this series under the regime of a new coach.
