England’s top order quite fragile since Cook’s retirement: Azhar Ali

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Sarthak Karkhanis
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England's top order quite fragile since Cook's retirement: Azhar Ali. Azhar Ali says that Pakistan will be looking to exploit a fragile England top order

Last Updated on 5 years by Charbel Coorey

England’s top order quite fragile since Cook’s retirement: Azhar Ali. Azhar Ali says that Pakistan will be looking to exploit a fragile England top order

Azhar Ali, Pakistan’s Test captain, thinks that England have been unsettled at the top of the order since Alastair Cook’s retirement. As a result, the Asian side will be looking to get the better of English side in that aspect.

“Their top order has been quite fragile for a while since Alastair Cook retired. They’ve tried a few combinations and only now it’s just settling down; they weren’t very confident of their top order. Their Test team is in the process of settling down still.

In our team, the way that our fast bowlers have improved (is commendable). How Shaheen has bowled, any team will look up to him. Naseem Shah has bowled with great pace. Abbas’s experience; we have youngsters too who have done well, so we have bowling options. But these three, in particular, can cause any batting line-up trouble.” Azhar said upon the team’s departure to England.

Also read: Abbas underrated? 6 underrated bowlers in Test cricket 2019/20

England's top order quite fragile since Cook's retirement: Azhar Ali. Azhar Ali says that Pakistan will be looking to exploit a fragile England top order

The Pakistan Cricket team will be in quarantine for 15 days in England. 10 players out of 29 selected for England tested positive to COVID-19. However, out of the 10, six players later tested negative.

Pakistan will be wary of Jofra Archer, last summer’s England sensation. This will be Archer’s first series against the Misbah-coached side. How Pakistan handle him will be key, as they seek to keep their good run in England going (unbeaten in Test series in England since 2010).

“England has a great bowling line-up no doubt, and in their conditions, they perform very well. But if you take out Jofra Archer from that attack, it’s the same attack that we have faced in the past and won Tests there. Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Woakes, Stokes and even Wood was there then. We won facing them then,” as the captain showed confidence in his batting lineup.

Azhar said that they will get a better idea about the conditions after the England vs West Indies Test series. This includes the key change regarding the use of saliva to shine the ball.

“Maybe, but we can still use sweat on the ball and fast bowlers sweat irrespective of the weather conditions once they bowl a couple of overs. So I think we’ll still be able to shine the ball with these regulations in place also. Maybe the ball will reverse soon too. We haven’t played with these rules in place, but the West Indies series will take place while we are there so we’ll get a better idea then of things as to how it shines and when it swings. We’ll get an idea through practice matches too. We can then figure if it’ll be batting-friendly or not,” the 35 year old said.

“Until we experience it ourselves, we won’t have a 100 per cent idea of what really will happen. But there in the UK, batting is always a challenge because of seam movement. The seam of the Dukes ball remains prominent so the new ball will trouble batsmen and once the bowlers start sweating, they can manage the shine. Once you shine the ball, the shine stays for some time because in England due to the rains there’s a wax coating on the ball that prevents the ball from getting wet.”

Following the controversy around Hafeez, and the positive results of the COVID-19 tests, Pakistan renamed a 20-member squad to travel to England.

Written by Sarthak Karkhanis. Follow Sarthak on Twitter today.

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