Key Mouth Watering Battles Ahead Part 4 Author: Maaz; Views: 432; Date: 2-01-2012, 10:53;

Cook and Trott vs Taufeeq and Azhar Ali

Both have been highly effective 2^nd wicket stands for their respective countries. Both have a left hand right hand combination. All players involved average in excess of 40 at test match level. Both partnerships have been extremely reliable for their countries. Both rely on perseverance, resistance,controlled stroke play, mental toughness and grit to get through and look to set up the foundations for a sizeable total. Both enjoy batting with each other for both sides and have a sound understanding of each other. Both are bound to perform, but who will edge out the other? It will be an intriguing contest seeing the pairs battling it out in the middle against some fine bowling line ups. It’s a close call.

Cook and Trott

19 innings
1312 runs
5 100s and 1 50
average of 73

Taufeeq and Azhar

11 innings
813 runs
4 100s and 3 50s
average of 74

England left handers vs Hafeez

Hafeez has a remarkable track record against left handed batsmen. The ‘Professor’ as he is known in the dressing room and amongst his fans as well because he likes to share his thoughts openly, is a cunning operator and has made many left handers his bunny, namely Devon Smith and Tamim Iqbal. This time he will be up against batsmen with greater pedigree, but even then he has actually troubled batsmen with his own guile and variations in all forms of the sport so we cannot rule him out. England have several left handers in their batting order and Hafeez can work them out if he is thrown the ball by Misbah-ul-Haq. One skids ongoing straighter, one drifts in from wider of the crease with a fair deal of revs, one turns and bounces after pitching. You can regard him as an all rounder. His bowling is mighty effective and consistent with those nagging trajectories, undisputable control, regular economical figures and subtle varieties. He has even opened in test matches and with 2 left handed Poms padding up first, there may be a temptation to give him the new cherry.

Mushtaq Ahmed's Presence In The English Camp

The former Pakistan leg spinner who has was integral member of Pakistan’s victorious World Cup campaign in 1992 with his  mixture of legbreaks and googlies has been a regular member of the English coaching staff over the years where they have reached record breaking highs. England will be looking for his advice and services more than ever against Pakistan. Mushy, the Sussex living legend, will undoubtedly be an influential figure. He has already voiced his excitement for the series and was relishing the battle between the spinners. It should be interesting to see if Monty has worked on his bowling if England do decide that 2 specialist spinners is the formula to go by.

Bell vs Shafiq 

Both are technically well equipped. Both are short in stature. Both field as bat pads. Both rely on timing and elegance as opposed to explosiveness. Both bat at number 6 in the lower middle order. Both generally play spin pretty efficiently. There are some key similarities between the two although Bell is far more experienced. Can Shafiq compete and match him? 

England would not have seen much of the Karachi batsmen before and therefore he could be difficult to figure out first up. The pundits in the sky studio picked up on his deficiencies against short pitched bowling where he looked all at sea and therefore the tall visiting pacers might be testing him out by getting him to smell the leather. Shafiq will need to look to survive against the 2^nd new ball as this is a likely time when he will be out in the middle and will need to be addressing the shorter stuff by dropping his hands and swaying out the line. There may well be times where he will be asked to shoulder the responsibility batting with the tail.