England's winter of cricket 2024/25

First topic message reminder :

The squad for the tour of Pakistan has just been announced...Stokes and Crawley are back, with Dan Lawrence dropped. There are also recalls for Rehan Ahmed and Jack Leach, with Brydon Carse getting a tour also.

Full squad (likely XI then others);

Zak Crawley
Ben Duckett
Ollie Pope
Joe Root
Harry Brook
Ben Stokes
Jamie Smith (wk)
Gus Atkinson
Olly Stone
Jack Leach
Shoaib Bashir

Reserves:
Jordan Cox
Brydon Carse
Rehan Ahmed
Chris Woakes
Josh Hull
Matthew Potts

Will MacPherson noting they see Tom Hartley as more suited for the true turning wickets of SL/India/Bangladesh, hence his omission. Tests likely to be played at Rawalpindi, Multan, Rawalpindi. (Two Pindi tests...fun).

Extra seamers suggest Stokes might not be fit to bowl?

KP_fan wrote:

alfie wrote:  both wickets today owe something to extra bounce which may be either a pitch feature or bowler effort or both ?

The ssame bowlers were dying 2nd bounce to the WK yesterday.
I think it's cracks which should be more worrying for Eng in the bigger picture.

Noman Ali with a test high of 97 and a FC hundred + 14 fifties has batted competently and with intent.
Pak have runs on the board.

Pak spinners will have to bowl in-line with stumps and hope some keep low and some jump and some turn a bit and strike Eng on the pads.
Getting out is not easy if one plays proper cricket ....but once you start sweeping, hacking , reverse sweeping , you could miss one quickly

Not entirely sure this is right, considering Noman has come in at number 10 and swept pretty effectively so far. Doesn't seem to yet be much great indifferent bounce for the spinners, its mainly slow and low. Expect with the new ball it might do a bit, but once the seam wears down its not done a huge amount for the spin...

Carse has been a real find for England.

Think if Pakistan's lower order had got them here we'd be saying it's about par. But when the 8th wicket partnership does it

Suggestion that Stokes has pulled something so not bowling

366 all out - I think Pakistan will be reasonably happy with how they've gone today, as after the early wicket they could have been scuttled for not much over 300.

Time to see how England can bat on this slow and low pitch - until we've had a couple of sessions it's difficult to gauge whether Pakistan have made a good score. Assuming England bat positively, you have to assume they'll be 200 to 250 by the close, but the big question is how many wickets we lose in doing so.

GSC wrote:Suggestion that Stokes has pulled something so not bowling

Where did you see this?

Jamal looks like he's going to be ok to bowl.

Duckett off the mark with a boundary!

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

GSC wrote:Suggestion that Stokes has pulled something so not bowling

Where did you see this?

Jamal looks like he's going to be ok to bowl.

Beeb live text saying he had extra strapping on his hammy this morning

Is there a more excitable wicket keeper than mohammed Rizwan when it comes to ridiculous lbw appeals?

Or shouting catch it to every sweep shot.

Not as annoying as Gilchrist shouting bowled warnie after every ball mind

Haha very true!! He's always doing something would annoy me if I had to bat with him keeping behind me

GSC wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

GSC wrote:Suggestion that Stokes has pulled something so not bowling

Where did you see this?

Jamal looks like he's going to be ok to bowl.

Beeb live text saying he had extra strapping on his hammy this morning

Hmm, I didn't notice anything in the field to suggest he was struggling, but maybe precautionary?

Wisden - Rizwan is extremely annoying. Last test constantly shouting "catch" after every stroke in that Root/Brook partnership, when it was either along the ground or nowhere near fielders!

Nasser and athers saying Jamal had a hip problem too on commentary.....

Rizwan also shouting ooh aah every time the ball is delivered too just can't shut up lmao

Pakistan maybe could've swapped one of the 7 spinners for a seamer. Gonna struggle to stem the run rate if England get going with only the one I think.

Yep England already motoring problems for Pakistan

Mmm Jamal out already, spin the rest of the way?

Might be an exciting day one way or another

Lot of no balls already...noman goes up for another ridiculous lbw appeals but stopped in his tracks another no ball

...

Well that's incredibly lucky.

Huge let off for crawley

It is a bit of a silly rule, no real reason Crawley isn't out

Maybe Duckett should be in charge of reviews

Did someone earlier on wonder how England's bats would approach their innings ? "Bazball or properly" was it ?

69/0 from 10. Think you have your answer , KP_fan

Without any seam options I think it was always going to be quick in fairness.

Though Pakistan are probably a bit grumpy to not have one down now

Nomal Ali chucks, or so I feel

GSC wrote:Well that's incredibly lucky.

Bowler made a right mess of what should have been an easy run out. He still had time to pull a stump out , which would have got the wicket - but probably didn't realise the situation. Big slice of luck for England ... you don't want to get run out on these pitches.

GSC wrote:Maybe Duckett should be in charge of reviews

To be honest I am of the opinion these days, that with three reviews (and not losing one if its umpires call), if you're one of the main bats, you should basically auto review if you're given out LBW.
Very little downside to doing so.

Well Crawley ran out of lives

KP_fan wrote:Nomal Ali chucks, or so I feel

An old cricket mate of mine opined that all finger spinners chuck

I think that is a slight exaggeration. But still...

Anyway he has Crawley now , courtesy of a good review. 73/1 and Pope will be facing a lot of spin...

An opening for Pakistan...ball starting to turn a bit more

GSC wrote:Well Crawley ran out of lives

Really quite poor knock. Never settled.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

GSC wrote:Well Crawley ran out of lives

Really quite poor knock. Never settled.

Think he prefers pace. But still , if a 70 opening stand is the worst he and Duckett can manage , it is a bit of an improvement on the days between Strauss/Cook and this pairing.

88/1 off 17. Not a bad start. Can't see them getting 800 on this ; but if they can tick it over at this rate and forge a lead they would still be well placed. Way to go yet of course...

England probably happy enough, Pakistan probably wanted another wicket from that mini session. Need a clatter after tea, else England could be not miles behind heading into day 3 at this rate and one seamer to stem the flow of runs.

Pretty clear they are not keen on introducing Mahmood - probably have in mind what England did to him last tour.

Jamal rather feeding Duckett. Would've thought youd be better off boring him and waiting for him to do something a bit dim. Pope the scratchy starter at the other end.

Good day so far for England.

They worked hard to get those last five wickets, and didn't concede many either.

Pitch is still good for batting, despite its appearance. Crawley's knock was a bit streaky and he's not a comfortable player v spin. Duckett, however, has been sublime. Great range of shots and the placement of them to find the gaps has been terrific.

Pope's been OK....ah he's out. Sajid just fired that one in - did it take an inside edge? I look at it as 29 bonus runs from Pope, so there's that.

Think Sajid Khan has been the best of the bowlers, so that's deserved for him. But Pakistan have missed out immensely in not picking, at the very least, Naseem, instead going for Zahid who hasn't even bowled yet.

125/2. England should still be targeting 450 from this position. Lead might be below 100 by stumps at this rate.

It's a great ball to be fair. M
England will need a decent lead if more balls start doing that

Sajid has a magnificent moustache

Don't think England get nearly the value for the reverse sweeps for the amount they play

Duckett somehow not bowled. Last four times he's got to 70 in tests, he hasn't reached three figures. Last century was in the third test v India in February.

Pope is out but hes there in spirit with that review

Embarrassing review.

Duckett now into the 90s. Keeping the run rate above 5.

Close to being bowled indeed ! To be fair he gets a lot from the reverse sweep... but I do sometimes wish he'd be a bit more sparing with it when he's on top of the bowling .162/2 from 31 so business as usual..

Nice to see it isn't just England clueless on reviews. That was just ridiculous...not even a hint of ambiguity, clearly just way outside on impact Bizarre

A change of bowling at last. All 7 might get a go eventually...

19 overs left in about 70 minutes. Might be a bit of squeeze to get them all in even if it is all spin from here.

Watchful start from Root, just got his first boundary. Duckett on 96, nearly there.

England should be beyond 250 at stumps. Pakistan need them at least four down by then, otherwise it's getting away from them.

Root hasn't totally got into his groove yet , and Duckett is a bit twitchy approaching his century. So RR has slowed a bit. Still respectable enough ! Salman having a bowl now...and getting spin to beat Duckett and keeper ..But there is the hundred for Duckett ! Well played indeed...

Century for Duckett! A Pakistan specialist.

Allows the DJ to strike up Lovefool for the 43rd time.

And Root's on a classic Root trajectory. 32 off 50, just two boundaries, quietly going about his work with no fuss.

Very Well played Duckett in context of the pitch.
He played like almost only he can and he does.

Lazy & Untidy on Pak not to have done enuf analysis on him to cut out his various sweeps and make it more difficult for him.

Almost opposite of Eng this where Pak surrender most analytical/ planning advantages to " We will figure as we go along"

Sajid bowls with almost a leg spinners action