England captain Alastair Cook has warned bowler Mohammad Amir to expect hostile reception from crowds during the visit of Pakistani team. Much tougher challenges await when the Test series starts in 10 days’ time at Lord’s, where Amir will return to the scene of his spot-fixing crime six years ago.
Pakistan are prepared for the inevitable questions about Amir and have contracted a public-relations company to advise them throughout the tour on how to handle the attention. The best way is to produce good cricket and, for that to happen, their batsmen must find form quickly. Pakistan know their bowlers are good enough to take 20 wickets but recently saw how Sri Lanka quickly subsided against the swinging ball in England, with the series over within a couple of James Anderson spells.
During the warm-up match with Pakistan, Somerset dropped four chances of varying difficulty and also missed a couple of sharp run-out chances but Pakistan enjoyed a relatively untroubled day, even if the two batsmen they will rely on for leadership had varying days of success. Captain Misbah-ul-Haq’s two-ball duck – he was caught at second slip chasing an away swinger – in his first-class innings in England was worrying for Pakistan but Younis Khan made batting look easy as he finished the day one short of his 53rd hundred.
He put on 179 for the fifth wicket with Asad Shafiq, who looked comfortable from the moment he walked to the crease, as both batsmen showed the benefit of long preparations for the tour. The Pakistan players have not appeared in first-class cricket since January but their build-up has been extensive with a boot camp in Abbottabad with the Pakistan Army and two weeks netting in Southampton.
Birmingham set for competitive match between England, Pak fans
A cricket match between England’s fans and their British-Pakistani counterparts will take place in Birmingham prior to Pakistan’s first Test at Lord’s. The Barmy Army will compete for the Edgbaston Fans Trophy against the newly-formed National Asian Cricket Council (NACC) in a T20 match at Attock Cricket Club on July 13.
According to Edgbaston Stadium’s chief executive Neil Snowball, the match will give a greater profile to fans ahead of Pakistan’s tour of England and will also promote an atmosphere of unity among fans from both sides.
“Edgbaston has been working closely with both supporter groups for several years and, with excitement building towards the start of the Investec Series, we wanted to give a greater profile to fans,” he said.
“The sport is able to unite people from different cultures and beliefs from around the world. We’re thrilled to be the architects of this first competitive match between England and Pakistan fans, and hope that this is something we can repeat for future series,” he added.
Paul Burnham, founder and managing director of the Barmy Army, said: “We are really excited about this game and expect it to be a fun-packed evening of cricket and fund raising. Hopefully, this will be the first of many such fixtures, and we can start welcoming many more British Asians to join the Barmy Army Supporters Club.”
