ULTIMATE TEST
England must conquer their leg-spin demons at Pakistan’s fortress
Now it gets serious. Now this Test series will provide the ultimate challenge to Alastair Cook and his developing England team that was expected from Pakistan at the adopted home that has become such a fortress for them.
The desperately flat pitch in Abu Dhabi and the absence of leg- spin sensation Yasir Shah made the first Test a little less daunting for an England team who came agonisingly close to pulling off an historic victory.
Today’s second Test will be different. Yasir, the Lionel Messi lookalike who idolises Shane warne, is fit after a back spasm and the Dubai groundstaff were yesterday shaving off what grass there was on the pitch to afford him a warm welcome back.
If England can prosper on a turning track against a bowler who has taken 61 wickets in his first 10 Tests then they really will be in with a chance of becoming the first team to win a series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.
England will be unchanged, providing Ben Stokes shows no ill- effects from his return to training after a virus, and with their confidence boosted by the dramatic last-day turnaround in Abu Dhabi inspired by their own leg-spinner.
Adil Rashid’s five wickets do not yet make him the finished article but they proved he can be a second- innings threat and vindicated the faith Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace have shown in him.
‘He’ll take a huge amount from that,’ said Cook, who provided the perfect example of how to bat long and big here with his 14-hour marathon. ‘You saw the weight lift off Adil’s shoulders and he started to show his potential.
‘we shouldn’t judge him on the first innings and I was very impressed with the character he showed. I always say a lot of Test cricket is in the mind and the way he responded second time round will have done him the world of good.’
Someone else in need of a boost is Jos Buttler, who is finding Test cricket a very different kettle of fish to the one-day arena where he made his name as an innovative strokemaker of rare gifts.
Buttler badly needs a score in the last two Tests.
‘He finds this format his least natural,’ admitted Cook. ‘He’s had to think about his game as people have found out more about him and he’s still working on that. we shouldn’t forget how well he has kept and we are right behind him.’
Steven Finn’s injury has made England shelve any thoughts they had of rotating him with Mark wood and the Durham man has been challenged by coach Bayliss to prove his body can handle the strain of successive Tests.
England bowled Pakistan out for 99 here three years ago but still contrived to lose and they believe there might be a bit in this surface for their seamers because the deep shadows cast by the enclosed stadium can cause the ball to nip around more than in Abu Dhabi.
Those shadows mean the thorny subject of bad light may well be an issue again, with the game desperately needing to avoid a repeat of the first Test farce which saw play end with England on the brink despite floodlights shining down.
‘ This issue does need some clarification,’ said Cook. ‘I don’t think anyone has found a solution and we need to decide exactly which way to go.’
Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq was unapologetic about calling up off-spinner Bilal Asif to Pakistan’s squad even though he is awaiting results of tests on a bowling action reported as suspect in Zimbabwe.
But it would be a surprise if Bilal plays in a Pakistan side who will be watching what they say after Moeen Ali revealed he could understand the Urdu they were speaking in the field in the first Test and had reported back to Cook. ‘Maybe we will say one thing and then do another,’ said Misbah, smiling.
It will be actions, in particular those of Yasir and how England deal with them, that will decide this Test and series far more than words.