Sharjah’s is an unprepossessing cricket ground. In Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the stadiums are state-of-the-art modern ventures. The one in the third of the Emirates that England visit on this trip is old, though, in its fourth decade, purely functional in design with a low circle of tin-roofed stands and a concrete pavilion. It might be in any of the smaller cities on the subcontinent.
But the Sharjah Cricket Ground, as the sign above the sightscreen at the Sharjah Club end reminds those who come to watch games here, has its place in the Guinness Book of World Records, having staged no fewer than 218 one-day international matches, a figure no other ground comes close to matching, and at its most prolific in the late ‘80s and through the ‘90s. It used to be a cricket-trivia-question banker.
It was built, with the very best of intentions, by a philanthropic Sharjah businessman, Abdul Rahman Bukhatir, a cricket patron, who saw an opportunity to provide entertainment for the expat Asian workers in Sharjah, while, in setting up the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series to provide financial reward to eminent cricketers from India and Pakistan, staging benefit matches. The outcome, over the years, far from Bukhatir’s ideal, was a series of matches with little or no context in the global scheme of things, some of allegedly dubious provenance and highlighted as suspicious during the investigations into match-fixing two decades ago.
International matches ceased 12 years ago, following the investigations into corruption by Lord Condon and Justice Qayyum, until Afghanistan began using it as a home base in 2010, and Pakistan once more shortly afterwards.
In Test match terms, though, there have only ever been seven: four of them, first between Pakistan and West Indies, and then Pakistan and Australia in 2002. In 2011, Pakistan drew a single Test against Sri Lanka; last year, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka and, in December, at a time when the death of Phillip Hughes had such an impact on the cricket world, New Zealand beat Pakistan. So, historically, it does not represent a great sample.
In 2011 Pakistan had the upper hand in that drawn match; in the second Sri Lanka match, Pakistan came from behind in the first innings to score 302 for five in the fourth innings to win; the Kiwis had considered forfeiting the match in the aftermath of Hughes’s death but obliterated Pakistan instead, with the off-spinner Mark Craig taking seven for 94 on the second day after a day’s postponement, whereupon Brendon McCullum hit 11 sixes in making 202. Kane Williamson made 192 and the Black Caps finished with 690. Pakistan lost by an innings and 80 with a further three wickets for Craig.
None of this gives England anything to glean beyond a bizarre statistic from their analyst telling the seamers to expect the minimum of seam movement: great psychology and it demonstrates why bowlers are bowlers and analysts are not.
But if England had been considering a variety of options after the loss in Dubai, which ranged from playing a battery of seamers to going in the opposite direction and adding a third spinner, they have been thwarted by the injury to Mark Wood, whose ankle condition will give them and him trouble over the coming years and will require careful management.
As it stands Alastair Cook is “100% fit”, and although there will be a minimum of two changes now, only one has definitely been confirmed, with Jos Buttler cutting a rather sad figure as backstop and ball carrier, while Jonny Bairstow went through his wicketkeeping drills. It means that James Taylor will come in to replace Buttler, and there is a case to be made for him doing so at three, with Ian Bell, who has averaged 37 only since moving up the order five matches ago, dropping to five where he averages 48, has made nine of his Test hundreds and has always looked more comfortable.
Wood’s indisposition has thwarted any idea (a perfectly sound one some within the England camp concede) that England’s best chance of bowling Pakistan out in the first innings to set up the match would come exclusively with four pacemen plus Ben Stokes, with the addition of Liam Plunkett in place of Adil Rashid. In fact, it is almost certain now that Rashid will retain his place, and there is a chance that Samit Patel could be Wood’s replacement.
Rashid spent a high-profile hour being tutored by Shane Warne – not just the greatest of his art but a huge evangelist for it – and although Warne was at pains to point out that the last thing he wanted to do was tinker with techniques in the middle of the series, there was some obvious advice about body and arm position, the better presumably to get more energy on the ball. Of more benefit at this stage would be the advice he gave on strategy and attitude, something he said he discussed with Cook.
In any case, it would be inappropriate to try to finalise a team two days before the game when the pitch is still being prepared, was soaked through and had the irate groundsman animatedly shooing the England brains trust away. All will be revealed on the morning of the match.
