England have opted for all three of their spinners, in addition to Joe Root, by recalling the Leicestershire leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed for the decisive third Test on what they expect – in spite of precedent – to be a turning pitch in Rawalpindi.
Rehan, now 20, took the title of England’s youngest Test cricketer from Brian Close when he made his debut aged 18 in the third and final Test of England’s last tour of Pakistan. He slipped seamlessly into Test cricket, thanks to Ben Stokes’s sensitive captaincy, and finally called upon when the Karachi pitch was turning, he took five wickets for 48 runs to wrap up the series 3-0.
By how much Rehan has kicked on, or if he has done so at all, will be one of the fascinations of this decider. While his Test record after four games is healthy (his other three Tests in India) at 18 wickets at 34 runs each, his overall first-class record stands at 48 wickets at all of 46 runs each – another example of England picking young bowlers overtly prematurely but coaxing success out of them.
Matthew Potts and Brydon Carse are therefore rested after their efforts in the second Test, and Chris Woakes will continue his recovery since playing in the opening Test, with Gus Atkinson recalled to be England’s only specialist seamer. His opening partner might be Stokes, who said: “Obviously coming in and being one of only two seamers, I’m fully confident that I’ll be able to get more out of myself this week than I did last week.”
One look at the Rawalpindi square indicates the rationale behind England’s selection of three spinners and only one specialist seamer. It is relatively lush, aside from the pale and parched pitch, and that lushness will keep the shine on the ball far longer than it did during the second Test in Multan. Pakistan’s message is that they do not want any help to be given to England’s reverse-swingers like Carse and to a lesser extent Potts and Woakes.
Or as Stokes explained Rehan’s selection: “you’ve got your slow left-arm spinner, your off-spinner and Bash (Shoaib Bashir), and then you want to pick someone who, if you do go with the three options of spin, that is not a luxury but someone who’s there to be able to break the game open when you feel like it might be coming a little bit too easy at one end. Pakistan played a leg-spinner last week, who bowled three or four overs, but you’d rather have it and not need it than need it if not have it.”
Analysis: Rehan recall a huge gamble with series on the line
This gamble by England could work out happily if they win the toss and bat and score heavily. The pitch, even if it does not turn from the start (and recent Tests here have favoured seamers), is sure to do so as the game goes on, and Rehan would be well worth his place in Pakistan’s second innings.
The problem for Stokes is what happens if he calls tails, as usual, and the coin comes down wrongly. Rehan transfers his bounciness into his bowling, and has a fine googly to blend with his leg-breaks, but sustained accuracy is not in his or most legspinners’ repertoire. Keeping the runs down if Shoaib Bashir has a bad day and Rehan is inaccurate – without much reverse-swing in reserve – would force Stokes to bowl himself more and more in his bid to save this series.
Whatever the result of the toss, England will have their memories of their first Test triumph here two years ago when they won within a few minutes of daylight to spare.
“When we turned up at the first test (in Multan) I said to Leachy, ‘Oh, some great memories here’ and it was the wrong place. So I said it again today knowing that this was the right venue for that,” Stokes said.
“I think wherever you go around the world, if certain things happen like that, you’re always going to remember those things. Every player will have grounds where they can walk in and they’ll just go straight back to something special that happened to them. So yeah. Hopefully it doesn’t get as tight as it did last time we were here, but hopefully we get the result that we want like the last time we were here.”
England’s last Test series victory abroad was in Pakistan two years ago. But at 1-1 this time, against opponents who sensed brittleness when England were dismissed in fewer than 35 overs in their second innings in Multan, the psychological advantage is possibly more on the side of a re-energised home side.
Brook plans to return to triple-century heroics
Harry Brook came down to Punjab’s grey earth when he followed his treble-century in the first Test against Pakistan with two modest contributions that could not prevent England losing the second.
Two days out from the decider in Rawalpindi, Brook was prepared to reveal that he had come up with a new plan after his twin failures in Multan of nine and 16. When asked what it was he replied with the same dead bat that he uses in his rare defensive shots: “No!”
Brook’s 317 off 322 balls was the second fastest in Test history in terms of balls – second only to the blazing Indian opener Virender Sehwag – and took his Test batting average to the stratospheric heights of 62.50, higher than anybody who has played more than a handful of Tests apart from Sir Donald Bradman. It is back down now to 59; and Brook’s work in the nets gave a clue to what his response this week is going to be to restore it.
Brook’s first net was on the edge of the square against none other than James Anderson, off something not far short of his full run-up; Olly Stone, who has returned from his wedding in the UK, if to no great avail; and a local offspinner. Brook left the ball several times outside offstump, when beginning cautiously, and otherwise he played off the front foot.
When he went across the ground to two more nets, against England’s spinners, again Brook batted as if he was going back to square one. His current franchise contracts might be worth a million dollars but he suggested that he was not going to bat like that with this series on the line. And again he mostly forwards, having been dismissed twice on the back foot in Multan.
Against Jack Leach, Brook did little more than play immaculately forward, sniffing the ball under his nose as he was brought up to do in Yorkshire. Against Shoaib Bashir he swept almost every time, but not monster hits, just sweeps around the corner for a single. Against Joe Root, of course, he was honour-bound to play shots but nothing too outrageous.
The only time Brook played back in the nets was against the young Warwickshire legspinner Tazeem Ali who was found to be on holiday in Pakistan and called into the England nets in Multan and again here. Brook was happy enough to go back and square-cut when the rookie spinner dropped short and wide.
He did practise an unusual shot though: when a spinner pitched in front of him, instead of a conventional sweep or reverse-sweep, he tried to hit the ball straight into the ground, almost by patting it on the head with his bat. Almost every time Brook tried, he succeeded in doing so but fell forwards on to the ground in the process, so that one might be shelved.
This stadium holds wonderful memories for Brook; he announced himself to Test cricket (after a quiet debut at the Oval) by hitting 153 off 116 balls, an innings that took Pakistan’s breath away. Tobruk was one of the hottest and most brutal of all battles, never to be forgotten or trivialised, but bowling to Brook can be something of a struggle too.
“Conditions are going to be a little bit different this time,” Brook said. He referred to England’s last game here as “a mega-win” and added that “it’s always good to play in deciding games.” As for how the pitch is going to play, he replied: “God knows, to be honest. That’s the beauty of batting number five – you get to see what it’s doing.”
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