After a long six-year hiatus, Pakistan return to England to play their first Test series since 2010 and carry with themselves a baggage of unfulfilled dreams and shattered dignity. As to what effect will that have when they actually take the field at Lord’s on July 14 is yet to unfold, but what can be taken for certain is the fact that each of those 11 men who step onto the grass banks in London would be a part of history.
The word gambles have been taken, the counters to those gambles have been presented too, and when a certain Pakistani prodigy holds the red ball in his hands for the first time in six years, cricket would take giant strides in terms of its acceptability and room for forgiveness. Whether or not the game deserved such a move will be debated for years to come, but whatever Mohammad Amir does thenceforth, would be struck by his name, and added to his stats of 51 wickets from 14 Tests.
However, such has been the cloud that the 24-year-old has cast over a series that involves 21 other men on the field, that it has become more about the cricketer and less about the game itself. Shredding that philosophy, here, in this piece, we pick five players from either side who could be found engaged in key battles that would have a lasting impact on the outcome of the series.
#1 Alastair Cook vs Mohammad Amir
Out of the seven occasions that Alastair Cook and Mohammad Amir have come face to face in Test cricket, Amir has dismissed the England skipper thrice, and all three of those dismissals came during Pakistan’s 2010 tour to England. Certainly, the left arm pacer knows a thing or two about getting rid of left-handed batsmen such as the English captain. However, in six years that have passed by since the tour, Cook has elevated himself to the topmost echelons of Test match batsmanship. Only recently, the 31-year-old became the first Englishman and the youngest batsman to reach the milestone of 10000 Test runs.
The epitome of consistency and the synonym of solid, technically sound, and utterly boring, if I dare say, class of batting would be up against an unstoppable force that has rekindled itself after hitting an immovable object. Although Amir hasn’t taken the red ball in international cricket since his return in January this year, the potency that he has shown in the tournaments that he has played since have only reconfirmed the fact that his skills haven’t deteriorated during his five-year-exile.
With a little help from the conditions, something that is expected to be present in abundance in England, Amir is in with every chance of repeating his Man of the Series performance of 19 wickets from 4 Tests in the 2010 tour. The Pakistani’s ability to move the ball both ways at a sharp pace, and surprise the batsmen with even sharper bouncers may become a stern challenge even for a batsman of Cook’s calibre.
#2 Joe Root vs Yasir Shah
By popular yet debatable opinion, the best Test batsman and the best leg spinner in Tests would be featuring in this series and may provide for an enticing contest. Considered as one of the better players of spin in the England lineup, Joe Root, would face an opponent who has taken giant strides in international cricket within a very short span of time. Pitching Root’s 3493 runs from 42 Tests at 52 against Yasir Shah’s 76 wickets from 12 Tests would give us an idea of the class that these two cricketers possess.
While in Yasir’s case it can argued that all of his wickets have come either in the subcontinent or in his country’s adopted home, the UAE, Root has scored all over the world, with the exceptions of Australia and New Zealand. However, it would be the first time since his debut Test, that against India at Nagpur in 2012 - wherein he faced Pragyan Ojha, Ravindra Jadeja and Piyush Chawla on a rank turner – that the 25-year-old would be facing a spinner of Shah’s class and calibre. The 30-year-old Pakistani’s ability to spin the ball away from the right-hander, as well as, mix things up with the flipper, the quicker ball, and the deadly googly, would put Root’s abilities to a tough test, provided that the English pitches assist spin and bounce.
Many have failed to pick Yasir’s variations over the course of 12 Tests that the Pakistani has played, but in England, it will be a whole different affair. With little help expected from the pitches, it will be interesting to see whether Shah can bowl the containing line of spin bowling apart from the attacking one.
#3 Jonny Bairstow vs Wahab Riaz
Jonny Bairstow’s meteoric rise through the ranks in the English Test arena of late has been the one to stand and behold as the 26-year-old Yorkshireman has cemented his place in the England side, perhaps not as the best wicketkeeper-batsman, but surely as a proper batsman at No. 5. His last 10 Test innings feature three centuries – two against Sri Lanka in the last series, and one against South Africa in Durban last year – and one fifty. 1591 runs from 27 Tests at 39.77 may not put him in the league that his fellow Yorkshireman and England’s new No. 3 belongs, but has certainly helped him carve out a niche for himself batting in the middle order.
Nevertheless, the patience that Bairstow has shown of late, by virtue of which he has claimed a spot in the team as a Test batsman, may be put to some rigorous test when one of the fastest bowlers in the Pakistani attack, and the one who prefers the old ball over the new one, Wahab Riaz, nails in his reverse-swinging yorkers. The art invented by Riaz’s senior pros – most noticeably the duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis – makes swing independent of the external conditions and dependent only upon how well you maintain the ball.
At Riaz’s speeds, with deliveries touching the 150kmph mark and even exceeding it on a regular basis, facing him with the old ball may be a challenge for a middle-order batsman like Bairstow.
#4 Stuart Broad vs Misbah-ul-Haq
Stuart Broad’s emergence out of James Anderson’s shadow has been one of the hallmarks of England's cricket over the past couple of years. His wicket-taking juggernauts of 8/15 (vs Australia at Nottingham, 2015) and 6/17 (vs South Africa, Johannesburg, 2016) set aside, Broad’s performances over the past couple of years have leapfrogged astronomically, and he is all set to lead the English attack – as he has already done on a few occasions in the past – in the first Test at Lord’s in the absence of James Anderson.
The 30-year-old’s nagging lines and lengths along with the movement that he extracts – both off the pitch as well as in the air – and the bounce that he gets due to his 6’5” stature makes him a lethal bowler. Having said that, it must also be mentioned that howsoever attacking an option that Broad might be, in this series, he may be up against a monk, who has built his repertoire around patience, both on and off the field. The architect of Pakistan’s restoration to the days of their former glory, or maybe to a part thereof, Misbah-ul-Haq has been one of the unsung heroes of Pakistan cricket.
4352 runs from 61 tests at 48.89 and the record for the second-fastest century (in terms of the number of balls faced) in Test cricket (off 56 balls) elucidate the 42-year-old’s prowess with the willow. That he is still active in the international cricket, despite being an able limited-overs cricketer and a useful employee for the T20 franchises all over the world, shows how much he cares about Pakistan’s cricket and dreams of taking it to the pinnacle of the cricketing landscape. The battle between England’s most penetrative bowler and Pakistan’s most patient batsmen would be interesting to watch.
#5 James Anderson vs Younis Khan
The battle between England’s most prolific wicket-taker and Pakistan’s most prolific run-scorer in their respective cricketing histories is more about reputation than anything else. That the talent, and the hunger to perform are still there (hence the reputation) is an open secret. 454 wickets from 116 Tests and 9116 runs from 104 Tests are the stats for which James Anderson and Younis Khan, respectively, are known.
Surpassing milestones after milestones and conquering opponents after opponents, these two Test veterans would create a clash of magnanimous proportions, if and when they face each other. Although Anderson has been ruled out of the first Test, set to begin on July 14 at Lord’s, the chances of his return from the stress fracture to his right shoulder are pretty much there. The 33-year-old was ruled fit for the Lord’s Test but it was the captain Alastair Cook and the coach Trevor Bayliss who decided against risking their premier fast bowler without giving him proper time to recuperate.
Notwithstanding all that, there hasn’t been a bowler who has exploited the English conditions any better than Anderson and his return to the side, which is only an inevitability, would engage him in a key battle against a man who has overcome his own nation and has proved that he loves Pakistan cricket just as much as any of those who claim to.
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