PAKISTAN VS ENGLAND : TEST REVIEW

Compared to most other teams, Pakistan have been consistently successful against England in England over the last three decades. They drew their last two tours in 2016 and 2018, can they go further to beat England in England ?

TEAMS 

• ENGLAND : One of the biggest talking points of this bizzare cricket summer has been over what team England will pick. Rest and Rotation was always Expected with packed schedule of six test matches across only seven weeks. Surely England won't make the same mistake as they did against West Indies by dropping Stuart Broad. James Anderson said he is targeting playing atleast 4 out of 6 test matches, which would see him rested for one of the next three against Pakistan. England may well want to replicate that "Start him, Sit him, Start him" formula for this series. If Anderson is indeed rested then wood is most likely to come in. Possibly preventing wood an opportunity is Archer. Woakes played back to back tests, so could well be rotated here, keeping him fresh for the remainder of the series. Sam Curran's his likely replacement. He has a remarkable record at home, averaging 22.63 with the ball, to go with 30.46 with the bat.

PREDICTED LINE UP:

Rory Burns, Dom Sibley,Joe Root(c), Ben Stokes,Pope, Butler (wk), Sam Curran/Zak Crawley, Bess, Broad, Archer, Anderson

• PAKISTAN : Pakistan's head coach Misbah ul Haq has suggested that they could field two spinners for the opening test. He said "I think the pitch looks like the way it was against West Indies and We saw the spinners had a role from day 1 in that test."  I think the last look at the pitch and weather conditions will be the deciding factor but there is a definite possibility and also an encouraging sign for Pakistan. Performance of top order is another big difference maker. If you cross 300 in the first innings, then your chances of winning are almost 70%.

PREDICTED LINE UP :

Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali (C), Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq,Faheem Ashraf/ Fawad Alam, Rizwan (wk),Mohd. Abbas/Wahab Riaz,Yasir Shah, Sohail Khan, Shaheen Afridi