Alastair Cook was wide awake at 2am mulling over his one selection dilemma for the third Test with Pakistan at Edgbaston but after plumping for Steven Finn ahead of Jake Ball, the England captain’s message to his fast bowler is to not overthink.
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“In every team there are key players and at the moment those two (Cook and Root) are in really good form”, Misbah told reporters. Turning to number four Vince, opening batsman Cook added: “I like the way he plays”.
Anderson, who turned 34 over the weekend, took four wickets at Old Trafford as England levelled the four-match series with a 330-run victory but there was a discernable drop in pace for the bowler who has claimed 458 victims in 117 appearances.
It also might have been a major disadvantage to lose the toss – when they won the toss in the second match though, albeit on a much better pitch to bat on they would pile up 8 for 589 with Joe Root scoring a massive 254 and Alistair Cook complementing with a century of his own.
“But we’ve gone for a guy with a proven Test record, who has a knack of picking up wickets and good memories from a year ago”.
“They are all quality players”, Arthur added.
There were few thrills and spills as Ballance, with his first 50 in his last seven Test innings spread over more than a year, exercised plenty of caution.
If Birmingham has been a happy hunting ground for Finn with 3-67, 3-109 and 8-117 in his three visits, it has been the closest thing to a home fortress for England, who have lost just once in their last 11 visits.
“He’s a huge talent”, said Cook.
He said, “That’s really important for us to just get them [Cook and Root] early and put them [England] under pressure”.
“I’m not discounting Hales, but clearly Cook and Root are the beacon of England’s batting at the moment”.
The poor form of top-order and upper middle-order batsmen will remain a big concern for the visitors. “There are credible losses, and there are losses when you lie down and are steamrollered”.
Dropping him for the Old Trafford Test was a hard conversation to have – as was telling Ball he had missed out here, according to the England captain.
He has fallen six times for just 15 runs in 57 balls to Lancashire paceman Anderson dating back to previous year in the UAE.
‘I think his anger was appropriate, ‘ said Misbah. “We were completely the opposite at Old Trafford”.
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Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Sami Aslam, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir, Yasir Shah, Rahat Ali.
