Bowling has been Pakistan’s area of concern even though their World Cup campaign is back on track following back-to-back wins over Bangladesh and New Zealand.
Even against the Black Caps, their bowling attack was carted for 401 runs, till Fakhar Zaman scored an unbeaten hundred and stitched an unbroken 194 with captain Babar Azam before rain forged a result in Pakistan’s favour.
That fortunate win has kept Pakistan’s semi-final hopes afloat, but they must defeat England at the Eden on Saturday. Agreed, England have fared poorly against all the top-tier teams in this World Cup. However, if their batting clicks, it certainly is explosive.
The Pakistan team management seems to have understood the gravity of the situation and hence came up with an innovative practice for the quicks during nets at the Eden on Wednesday. In the initial stages of Wednesday’s training session, which lasted for over a couple of hours, the pacers had to target a plastic bottle that was placed on the top of off-stump.
The idea behind that was to make the quicks target the off-stump so that they can
replicate that during game time. The likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Wasim, Zaman Khan and Haris Rauf — returning to practice after undergoing an MRI on his ribs back on Monday — practised that for a few minutes before bowling to the batters.
Among the batters, captain Babar batted for quite some time against Shaheen and the other pacers. Inability to convert his starts into big ones has ailed Babar as well as Pakistan although he did look sharper during his 66 not out in the previous game against New Zealand.
Leg-spinner Shadab Khan, too, was back in training after missing the last two games. Shadab suffered a concussion in the game against South Africa in Chennai and was substituted by Usama Mir.
Saturday’s game is expected to be rich in terms of celebrity quotient as rockstar Mick Jagger’s presence is likely.
Fresh wicket
Pakistan and England will most likely be playing on a fresh pitch.
The surface, unlike the other two pitches used in the three matches Eden has hosted so far in the Cup, appears a lot more greener at present.
“It will be undergoing further mowing though in the next two days,” a member of the Cricket Association of Bengal grounds committee said.
“But compared to the other two pitches, this one may have more carry, bounce and a little more movement for the fast bowlers. This wicket could be used for the (November 16) semi-final clash also.”
