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Pakistan and India bid to bulldoze England rebuilding plan

Having a ball | Chris Woakes feels the strain during an England training session ahead of the First Test: Getty Images
Having a ball | Chris Woakes feels the strain during an England training session ahead of the First Test: Getty Images

And so begins another Test summer before a backdrop of navel-gazing over the format’s future and value. Pitches, the toss, touring and the dominance of home teams - not to mention the Hundred and the poverty of England’s winter showing - all cloud the big picture.

Come 11am on Thursday, though, the big picture will be forgotten. England need victory. The changes they have made following a winter in which they lost five Tests and drew the other two are not seismic but they give a fresh feel to Joe Root’s side.

Jos Buttler is back at the right time, while 20-year-old Dom Bess will become their youngest spinner since 1931. A fully functioning Ben Stokes will be a big boost for Root, too.

At home, where James Anderson and Stuart Broad are so strong, England will feel the opposition — Pakistan now, India later — are there for the taking. They have not lost a home series since 2014 and have won 16 of their last 24 home Tests. But England always give their opponents a chance.

Pakistan have enjoyed great moments on these shores over the last two summers. There was the drawn series of 2016, which briefly propelled them to the top of the Test rankings, and last summer’s Champions Trophy triumph.

They are younger, fitter and, according to their coach Mickey Arthur, even more positive than they were in 2016. They will set up with five batsmen and five bowlers, with keeper-batsman-captain Sarfraz Ahmed between them. In Shadab Khan, the spinner who at 19 is even younger than Bess, and Faheem Ashraf they have a pair of bowlers who bat. Two Alis — Rahat and Hasan — are competing for the final seamer spot alongside Ashraf and Mohammads Amir and Abbas. Opener Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq, at No4, are charged with holding the batting together.

“The emphasis is on taking wickets and scoring [quickly],” said Arthur. “There are going to be times when you need to control the game, show a lot of patience and absorb pressure. Best for us is if we can put pressure back on the opposition. We do that by attacking.”

Pakistan sense a vulnerability in England. They have warmed up with victory over Ireland, whereas it is months since some England players played a red-ball match.

With Amir feeling, according to Arthur, all of “ready, determined, fit, strong, and excited”, they have studied Trent Boult’s performance in Auckland in March, when England were skittled for 58. “We’ve had a look at his lengths and the England batsmen then were on the back of a really tough winter for them,” said the coach.

Four left-handers in England’s top six look appetising for Amir, especially as two of them, the openers, enter the summer under considerable pressure. Mark Stoneman has two Tests to save his career, while Alastair Cook is still capable of big scores, but probably not big summers.

“Of course we can [win], definitely — we haven’t come here not to win,” added Arthur. “They are an intelligent, skilful bunch.”

England head into the series with changes at ECB board level following Andrew Strauss’s announcement last night that he will temporarily step aside from his role as ECB director while his wife, Ruth, undergoes cancer treatment.

The arrangement will see former England head coach Andy Flower step up to take on Strauss’s duties.