Five of England’s Test squad know what to expect in the United Arab Emirates. Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad all played in the three Tests against Pakistan early in 2012, all of which were lost by England amid the haze and dust of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile Steven Finn carried a lot of drinks.
Those Tests took place in front of rows of empty seats and a few dutiful travelling English supporters, constant magnets for the television cameramen. Their forlorn encouragements to the players echoed eerily around stands that came alive only when the one day-matches began.
This series will be a long way from the hubbub of the Ashes yet the challenge may be greater. Pakistan have a phenomenal record in their adopted home. Despite everything they have found a way to prosper and survive under the wonderfully imperturbable leadership of Misbah-ul-Haq, who is pondering, at the age of 41, whether this will be the last series of an extraordinary career. Misbah has scored exactly 4,000 runs in his 58 Tests, 3,880 of them after his 30th birthday.
England will almost certainly bowl worse and bat better than they did in 2012. Taking wickets was not such a problem for the team led by Andrew Strauss back then. Despite the lack of bounce, Broad and Anderson shared 22 wickets in the series; Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar took 27 though, as ever, England stubbornly resisted the notion of playing a second spinner until it was the blindingly obvious way to go. Panesar’s 14 wickets came in the last two matches.
This time Broad and Anderson will still be there, able to pass on to Ben Stokes, the other paceman bound to be in the final XI, the benefit of their experience. Stokes’ ability to find reverse swing – as well as the obvious calibre of his batting – ensures his presence in the team. However, Swann and Panesar have now moved on or – in the case of Panesar – been moved on.
The advent of this tour highlights the plight of Panesar. Four years ago he returned to the England fold successfully. His brand of fizzing, fast left-arm spin was ideal for the UAE. On innocent-looking surfaces there was just enough turn for the finger spinner as the ball skidded off the pitch, very often on to the batsmen’s pads, which led to a proliferation of lbws for the spinners of both sides, a record-breaking 43 in three Tests. A serene Panesar would have been invaluable this time around. But the blunt truth is that two counties, Sussex and Essex, have found him surplus to requirements in the past three years – and not especially serene.
So the burden of spin bowling falls upon inexperienced shoulders. Moeen Ali is now the senior spinner and is set for a busy tour. He is also competing with Alex Hales for the opener’s berth alongside Cook. However, he does so with the certainty and comfort that he will be somewhere in the team, come what may. Four years ago attritional spin was the order of the day; that has never been Moeen’s forte. He has been at his best in Test cricket as a support bowler for four seamers, rather than a headline act on turning pitches. That is a role that he has seldom had for Worcestershire, let alone England.
His support is unproven. Adil Rashid has never played a Test – thanks to a blinkered selection policy in Barbados at the start of the year – and the old cricketing euphemism of “being prepared to buy his wickets” applies to him.
Meanwhile Samit Patel’s only expectation of a trip to the UAE encompassed a possible autumn holiday until Zafar Ansari broke a thumb. For Pakistan, the leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who has 61 wickets in 10 Tests, supported by the experienced left-armer Zulfiqar Babar, pose a more obvious threat to batsmen, especially English ones who struggled so badly last time.
In 2012 Bell, tormented by Saeed Ajmal, averaged 8.50 in three Tests, Kevin Pietersen 11.16 and Eoin Morgan 13.66 as England were bewitched by the Pakistan spinners. Thanks to a 94 in Abu Dhabi, England’s highest individual score of the series, Cook managed to average 26.50. Only one player was over 30; that was Matt Prior and he has long since got on his bike.
So a mighty challenge awaits England’s young batsmen, which will be fascinating to witness. Look at the lineup and the majority – the exceptions being Cook and, perhaps, Joe Root, who has the capacity to go either way – instinctively crave to be aggressive against spin bowling. To succeed in that vein in the UAE would be a remarkable achievement. Whatever approach they adopt they would be well advised to keep their legs out of the way.
