England and Pakistan begin what has all the makings of being a really tasty Test series on Wednesday when they meet in the only match of the three that will take place at Old Trafford, ahead of the last two at the Ageas Bowl.
With this being a three match series, both teams will be acutely aware that the winner of this match will have complete control of proceedings, while the losing side will be under pressure to win both remaining games to claim the series.
England
You would think it would be a significant advantage for this English team that they have just come off the back of three competitive matches against West Indies. That might change later in the series when tiredness and heavy legs come into play, but for now that sharpness they will have gained from the West Indies games should be advantageous for them. Not only are they likely to be more sharp but they are match fit for the 90 over days.
The big test for England in this series will be their top order. Rory Burns, Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley if selected are all pretty new to Test cricket and while they went well in South Africa earlier in the year, there is a chance that as a combination this will be the best all-round attack they will have faced. It will give England so much going forward if their top order can tame this new ball attack and set up the game for the stroke players to provide big innings.
Pakistan
If England have had the advantage of playing three matches, Pakistan certainly don’t have that luxury but what they do have which a lot of touring sides don’t tend to have these days is the benefit of a month on the road together already. We saw West Indies really take advantage of that in the opening match that they played against England last month and Pakistan will be looking to do the same over these five days.
There are a couple of concerns for Pakistan going into this match. Their bowling attack is high class but it is young and we saw in Australia in the winter that their heads can soon go down if they are not delivering the goods. This is also their first series without Younus Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq so their younger batsmen are going to need to step up and be counted though. A lot of them were here for the World Cup last year so they know English conditions but need to back up that knowledge.
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Team News
England have delayed naming their side while they wait to see whether Ben Stokes will be fit to bowl. Ollie Pope let on that he has been bowling in the nets so Zak Crawley could come in for Chris Woakes should Stokes be fit to bowl. Dom Bess could miss out if England want an all-seam attack.
Pakistan are said to be leaning towards playing two legspinners which would mean Shadab Khan gets a game, although the rain ahead of the match might have kyboshed that idea. The seamers look like being Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah although they have plenty of options in that department. Fawad Alam will play if Shadab doesn’t.
Old Trafford
There have been 81 previous Test matches at this Manchester venue, of which England have played in 80 of them and come out on top in 30. They have drawn 35 and lost just 15 so this is a ground they seem to enjoy. Pakistan have competed against the red ball six times on this ground and have come away with a win just once. They have drawn three of those matches and lost two. England won both matches here against West Indies last month.
Neither of those matches were particularly high scoring but all the suggestions were that the wickets were good to bat on during days two, three and four. There has been some rain around Manchester in the lead up to the match and there could be some rain in the early hours of Wednesday and late afternoon but the forecast for the last four days couldn’t be better so expect a pitch that takes plenty of turn late on in the game.
Betting
I’ll go with just the one bet to ease my way into the series but now that cricket is up and running fully there is a strong chance I’ll look to get involved in running as these Test matches go on. The bet in question is the match wickets of Yasir Shah where the 3.5 line looks very much on the low side based on what we saw in the two matches against West Indies here. I get that there has been a bit of rain around ahead of the match but there was rain during both games against the men from the Caribbean.
The simple fact is that this wicket always spins and you only have to see the number of wickets that Roston Chase picked up in the last series to see that England still have weaknesses playing against spin. Yasir Shah is a mystery spinner and a very good one at that and the longer that this one goes on the more spin I expect this pitch to take. If Shah picks up wickets in the first innings it will be a bonus more than a necessity on this line because he should wreak havoc in the second innings. Whenever they come I expect his wicket tally to reach for at some point in the match.
Tips
WON – Back Y.Shah – Over 3.5 wickets for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
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