Time for England to wake up in Pakistan
England needed a wake-up call and the alarm bells were pretty loud in their first tour match in Pakistan.
But despite a generally awful batting display, Marcus Trescothick’s fine century apart, there’s nothing to get too worried about.
Two top-order failures in two days may not have been exactly what Michael Vaughan or coach Duncan Fletcher would have wanted. But they can’t say they weren’t warned. It was always going to be difficult to hit the ground running after the success — and distractions — of an Ashes summer.
The team was bound to come back to earth with a bump but at least it has happened now and not in the first test. The form of the batsmen is a concern but not a disaster — yet. It certainly looks bad but it will only be a real worry if there’s a repeat in next week’s final warm up match. In a funny way, England are better off playing test cricket and will raise their game accordingly once they reach Multan.
It hasn’t helped that a few of the lads have gone down with the collywobbles. I spoke to Ashley Giles earlier in the week and he was suffering more than most. In fact, he was so bad he had to duck out of most of yesterday’s play and hasn’t emerged from his hotel room since. That’s one of the problems with playing in that part of the world but I’m sure the squad will acclimatise.
There have also been positives to take away from England’s performance in Rawalpindi. For a start the bowlers looked pretty good, especially the two guys who have a real chance of taking part in the first test — Jimmy Anderson and Shaun Udal. They both played well yesterday and will have impressed Vaughan and Fletcher.
And what a superb display it was from Trescothick in the first innings. His unbeaten 124 was wonderfully constructed. It was a great effort, both mentally and physically, to bat all day in the first match of the tour. It’s a pity a few of his teammates couldn’t follow his example. Marcus can’t do it all on his own.
England were also without their Rest of the World stars Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison for this match. They will add some real quality to the squad when they join up. And with any luck, they’ll be fresh after a couple of weeks of rest and recuperation following the Super Series.
I certainly hope so. This England performance can be written off as a blip and they certainly haven’t become a bad side overnight. Even so, some of the play in this match has not been good enough. I don’t know if the clocks have gone back in Pakistan as well but this is one wake-up call England can’t afford to ignore.