After a fantastic Lord’s Test last week England and Pakistan do battle again on Friday when they head to Old Trafford for the second match in the series. England go there knowing they need to win to get back in the series while Pakistan will know if they win this match they are guaranteed a share of the series with two matches still to play.
England
England’s problems over the last 18 months to two years or so were exposed in that Lord’s Test match and while they almost brushed it off in calling it naïve they should appreciate that their top order hasn’t put up runs collectively for ages and the way they play spin is getting no better.
If England are to become the side they want to be in this format of the game they need to find a top six who are going to consistently function and put up scores of 400 without their extra batting depth bailing them out of trouble or getting them there themselves. That batting depth is useful but it can create a ‘if I don’t score someone else will’ feeling.
Pakistan
It was hard not to enjoy Pakistan’s performance at Lord’s. They won a good toss and made full use of it and then when the ball was in their hands they were constantly putting the pressure on the English batsmen and it didn’t take much for them to crack. They won the match comfortably and Mohammad Amir only took one top order wicket so they have even more to come.
The acid test for Pakistan will be when they go behind in a match. If England bat first and stick a decent score up can they respond? They have been known to fall in a heap when behind in matches before but you sense there is a responsibility and a unity in this team that will ensure that doesn’t happen.
Team News
England are recalling the cavalry with Jimmy Anderson and Ben Stokes confirmed starters for Steve Finn and Jake Ball respectively. The final place in the side is between James Vince and Adil Rashid after Alastair Cook confirmed that Moeen Ali is the number one spinner in this match.
Pakistan haven’t given too much away about the make up of their side but it would be hard to believe they can make too many changes after their excellent win in their previous match. If they do make changes they might play an extra spinner but that is unlikely.
Old Trafford
There have been 76 previous Test matches on this ground with England playing in 75 of them. They have 26 wins to 14 defeats with 35 draws but have seven wins and a couple of draws from their last nine matches here. Pakistan have played here five times with a win and a defeat along with three draws. The win was on their last visit in 2006.
The wicket is probably the quickest in the country at the minute and pace and bounce is guaranteed so that will assist the seamers and the spinners respectively but the batsmen will know they will get full reward for their shots despite the outfield looking a bit rough after recent Beyoncé and Rihanna concerts. The track is likely to turn later in the game.
Betting
Having picked up a couple of winners in the first Test and saw a number of outright bets enhanced I’m not going to go too mad here to begin with but there are a few bets that I like and one of those is a bet I took at Lord’s last week.
That is for Pakistan to win the match. When I looked at this series I gave Pakistan the matches at Lord’s, Old Trafford and The Oval and I’ve seen nothing to change my view of that. While England were run ragged by Yasir Shah at Lord’s the pace and fire in this seam attack could really have them hopping around on this track.
We saw experience and a maturity in Pakistan in the first game and while England are bringing back two key players they still haven’t done anything about their top order and you can have all the depth in the world but against an attack like this one Pakistan have you can’t rely on it forever.
Going into the match I have this 50/50 with the edge on Pakistan but if the tourists can win the toss and bat first and put a total up they are going to be ahead of the game very quickly so taking the 11/4 on them to win the match is almost a no brainer.
Chris Woakes could barely have impressed more if he had tried in the first game and you would have to think a performance line of just 115.5 is a touch on the low side. I don’t think anyone expects him to bag 11 wickets again but he is England’s quickest bowler in this match and I wouldn’t think five is beyond him and then he just needs to mop up 16 runs with the bat.
We saw in the first Test that he is solid with the bat and would have contributed a few more runs had he not run out of partners so putting the bat and the ball together I expect the Warwickshire ace to get to 116pts and probably quite a few more.
Lastly I’ll take a shot on Ben Stokes to be England’s top batsman in the first innings. He got a few out of the middle in leading Durham to victory earlier in the week and with nobody really impressing with the bat for England at Lord’s, 10/1 just looks a shade big. His advantage is that he can slog sweep Yasir with the spin and if he gets a few away and gets himself in he could make a score significant enough that nobody matches it.
Tips
Back Pakistan to win 2nd Test for a 3/10 stake at 3.75 with Ladbrokes
Back them here:
WON – Back C.Woakes’ Performance – Over 115.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back it here:
Back B.Stokes Top England 1st Inns Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with Skybet
Back him here:
