LAHORE – Pakistan opener Azhar Ali believes English condition will favorfast-bowlers and his compatriot pacers have the ability to trouble thehosts.
The right-handed opener was talking to media when he said that England willhave home advantage but Pakistan are ready for the challenge. “Home sidealways has an advantage when it comes to playing in certain conditions”,said Azhar, while talking to the reporters here at the Gaddafi Stadium onWednesday.
“England will come hard at us because they are coming back from lossesagainst New Zealand away from home. They will try to win their home series.The conditions there will favor fast-bowlers. We have a good bunch. Theywill trouble the England batsmen.”
The 33-year-old, when asked how the Test team will fare in the absence ofveterans Misbahul Haq and Younus Khan in England, said youngsters needbacking to deliver results. “English conditions would be tough. They willbe a challenge for everyone. Even players who have played there need timeto adjust in English conditions”, explained Azhar.
He continued by laying down a plan to upstage England on their home turf.“We should back our youngsters who are going on the tour.
When you have a new team and you are going on a tough tour, obviously itposes a big challenge, but if we play as a unit, back each other, then wecan extract good performances”.
When asked if the longest-format team is going to face the same fate as itdid against Sri Lanka in the UAE, succumbing to a 2-0 defeat in thetwo-match series, Azhar said there were a lot of positive in the seriestoo. “There were good signs in the series too”, he said.
“Haris Sohail made his debut and scored runs. Asad Shafiq scored a centuryat the end. All these were positive signs”.
Meanwhile, he did push the batsmen to do more. “But yes there were battingcollapses too. Players didn’t convert their starts into big scores. I thinkbatsmen need to work on that”. Azhar, like all cricketers, wants his nameon the Lord’s honours board and he wants to do that with a ton, but withoutpressuring himself with the task.
“The first Test is at Lord’s. Everyone wishes to have their name on theLord’s honors board. This will be an opportunity for me to score a centurythere. However, I am not taking this task as an added pressure. My maintask would be to lead the batting and score runs so that my team has anadvantage”.
Pakistan’s one of the most potent bowling weapons in Tests, leg-spinnerYasir Shah, will not be a part of the squad traveling to England and Azharbelieves replacing him would be a tough task.
“Yasir’s absence is a big loss”, said Azhar. “He has been performing for usfor the past three-four years. He played a key role in our victories whenwe visited England last time around. Captain and coach would be looking toreplace Yasir with someone new, but we don’t have anyone right now who hasbeen playing regularly in Tests for Pakistan”. – APP