12th man: Glenn Phillips
How are we supposed to compete against England in a couple of months when we’re playing like this? 😭✌️ I said this before this Bangladesh series started, and I’ll say it again now: we are genuinely not better than Bangladesh in tests on paper. We can’t even bowl to Najmul Hossain Shanto and we’ve got Root and Brook coming up. 😭✌️
I think Babar’s return from injury will improve us, and in general we do relatively well in English conditions. I’m not sure how effective Abbas is going to be because the surfaces England produce for tests are very different to the surfaces they play on in County cricket. Nonetheless, Abbas is the leader of the seam attack going into that tour. Plus, I believe the general English public, including the English players, genuinely fear Abbas. I suspect they’ll produce roads, as they are doing these days anyway, to neutralise him. But I remember 2018 Mohammad Abbas taking ten-fers on dead UAE tracks; I hope he pulls through anyway.
Imam-ul-Haq is going to get harassed as he always does. IELTS is a county cricket expert so hopefully he should do well.