Mercurial: if the word was not already in the lexicon, then someone would have coined it to describe the Pakistan cricket team down the years – dismal one minute, brilliant the next, capable of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat and the exact opposite. Some of the finest batsmen the game has seen have been Pakistani and the same goes for the quickest and most thunderous of fast bowlers. Few have matched the capacity to bamboozle possessed by Abdul Qadir or Mushtaq Ahmed. The destiny of matches could change in a blink. There have been the spats and controversy, too, and backstabbing political infighting that makes the Brexit campaign look like a Haight-Ashbury 60s love-in. No series involving Pakistan is ever dull.
This one will not be without its edge. There is the return of Mohammad Amir to Lord’s, the scene of the last of his 14 Test matches half a dozen years ago, as a brilliantly precocious and, as it proved, impressionable teenager. For all the party-line messages from the England side about life moving on, opinion inevitably remains divided on whether Amir’s rehabilitation is a good thing that cricket has facilitated or a bad message to send out. The volatile Wahab Riaz, too, is back at the scene of his infamous net confrontation with Jonathan Trott. “Don’t mess with us” is Wahab’s message this week, “because we can mess with you more.” Pakistan have a diplomat as captain these days but he will not curb the fighting instincts of his pace bowlers.
In theory England are facing a far greater challenge over the next four matches than they found with Sri Lanka. The Pakistani strength unquestionably lies in the bowling, with Amir and Wahab joined by one of Imran Khan or Rahat Ali, with the support of Yasir Shah, the pre-eminent wrist spinner in world cricket today. How England’s batsmen cope with Yasir will be one of the key elements, for his capacity to bowl long spells, either to contain or take wickets, will provide ample respite for Misbah-ul-Haq to be able to rotate his pacemen on what these days is generally an unforgiving surface for bowlers. It is the sort of role, in other words, Graeme Swann once played for England.
The Pakistan bowlers will find a revamped England batting order. The demise of Nick Compton’s Test career after a failed renaissance has left a vacancy at first wicket down. Almost as if by some sort of tradition England batsmen, or those regarded as the best middle order players have preferred to bat lower down, further away from the new ball. But it is generally axiomatic that, unless a side is blessed with world-class middle-order batting, the batsman best qualified to cope with the different demands of batting at three which may involve essentially being an opener, or waiting for a session or more to get to the crease, should be the top player. Apparently it was Alastair Cook, rather than Trevor Bayliss, who convinced Joe Root that, notwithstanding his success at four, he should take the role.
It means that Gary Ballance, whose 15 Test matches have involved batting at three, will probably bat at five on his return to the side. His return is something of a gamble given a lack of consistent runs this summer, although he made a timely century against an excellent Middlesex attack a little more than a week ago. In the absence of Ben Stokes it was decided to add to the mix Ballance’s experience and mental capacity to scrap rather than go for another debutant.
It does, though, carry an inherent risk for it is the left-arm pacemen who troubled Ballance once it had been worked out that his technique of staying deep in his crease let them pitch the ball further up and move it away. His idiosyncratic method has not visibly altered significantly since he was dropped in last year’s Ashes. James Vince, too, will find his predominantly offside game challenged more severely than it was by the Sri Lankans, particularly if Pakistan swing the ball to any degree.
Pakistan’s weakness, certainly in conditions here, lies in their batting and the fact that they have not played a Test match since the 2-0 win against England in the UAE at the back end of last year, the only defeat England have suffered in their last seven series. But they will be facing an England attack deprived, for once, of half of the most prolific pair of bowlers they have ever possessed. Jimmy Anderson’s absence was a close call, according to Cook. Rather than the apparent stress fracture of his shoulder blade the real issue was muscular, despite which he had been extremely confident of being fit for this match, something borne out by a full-on net session in practice. Instead, as with the possibility there had been of using Stokes as a frontline batsman only, England have taken a cautious approach, mindful perhaps of the way in which the Lord’s pitch can die and reduce bowling to a chore.
It means that Jake Ball rather than Toby Roland-Jones, whose home ground this is, will make his Test debut. Ball has been around the squad since some stirring performances for Nottinghamshire earlier in the season caught the attention. He has a good solid method, is sharp enough and does manage to control the movement of the ball. His experience of Lord’s and its vagaries amounts to a couple of matches only. The weather and the consequent difficulty in preparation of the pitch mean Lord’s is likely to be as hospitable to seam as it ever will be but it will still be a challenge.
