Rawalpindi
\nA recharged England, playing swashbuckling cricket under skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, will get their first taste of Pakistan conditions in 17 years when the first Test begins in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
\nUnder Stokes and former New Zealand great McCullum, England have remodeled their game-winning six of their last seven Tests at home playing what has been dubbed \u201cBazball\u201d after the coach\u2019s nickname.
\nThat came after a dismal sequence of just one win in 17 Tests \u2014 including a 4-0 humiliation in the Ashes in Australia \u2014 resulting in head coach Chris Silverwood being sacked and Stokes taking over as skipper from Joe Root.
\nBut low and slow pitches in Pakistan \u2014 where England last played a Test in 2005 \u2014 pose a different challenge, McCullum admits.
\nSecurity issues have meant Pakistan have had to play most of their home Tests of the last two decades on neutral grounds, usually the United Arab Emirates.
\n\u201cWe understand the size of the challenge in front of us \u2014 but that\u2019s great, and that\u2019s why you want to play the game,\u201d McCullum told a press conference.
\n\u201cBut at the same time, if we are given the opportunity to try and play aggressive and attacking cricket, we\u2019ll try and take that option.\u201d
\nEngland\u2019s new approach saw them chase down targets of 277, 299, 296 and 378 with ease to win Tests this year.
\nBut they have won only two of the 22 Tests they have played in Pakistan, losing four and drawing the other 16.
\nSeam spearhead James Anderson, who toured with England in 2005 but didn\u2019t play a Test, will have to draw on his 667-wicket experience to get life out of the expected unresponsive pitches with express pace bowler Mark Wood ruled out with a hip injury.
\nRoot will anchor an inexperienced batting line-up that needs to counter Pakistan\u2019s new spin attack of left-armer Nauman Ali plus uncapped pair Zahid Mahmood and Abrar Ahmed.
\nShaheen out
\nThe home team will miss strike bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is out of the series with a knee injury, while veteran spinner Yasir Shah has been dropped after struggling for form. An inexperienced pace attack will be led by Naseem Shah, who has played 13 Tests, while Haris Rauf and Mohammad Wasim Junior are both in line to make their Test debuts.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s always great to play England and I look forward to getting on this journey with our talented bunch of players,\u201d said captain Babar Azam.
\nIf Pakistan win the series 2-0 they will jump to second from fifth in the World Test Championship, with a series at home against New Zealand left to play. The top two of the nine teams will contest the final next year.
\nEngland are seventh and out of contention for the final.
\nPakistan may prepare a more result-oriented pitch at the Rawalpindi stadium after it produced 1,187 runs for the loss of just 14 wickets in a tame draw against Australia earlier this year.
\nThat pitch was rated \u201cbelow average\u201d by match referee Ranjan Madugalle and described as \u201cdead\u201d by Australian batter Steve Smith.
\nIf the pitch takes spin, England will rely on the experience of left-armer Jack Leach and may even bring in 18-year-old uncapped leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed, drafted into the squad last week after being initially named as a reserve.
\nLeach has experience on Asian pitches, taking 28 wickets in Sri Lanka and 18 in India in the last four years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rawalpindi A recharged England, playing swashbuckling cricket under skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, will get their first taste of Pakistan conditions in 17 years when the first Test begins in Rawalpindi on Thursday. Under Stokes and former New Zealand great McCullum, England have remodeled their game-winning six of their last seven Tests at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-298274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n