Inzamam-ul-Haq demands for seaming pitches ahead of England tour

Pakistan’s new chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, has asked for seaming practice pitches ahead of Pakistan’s tour to England. The PCB has picked 31 players and are going through a boot camp in Kakul to raise their fitness levels and Inzamam has told the PCB’s chief curator that from 29th May onwards, the players should be given seamer friendly pitches, to help them experience the seam, bounce, and movement, which they will have to encounter in the series in England.

Before the tour officially kicks off in late June, he would want to set up an acclimatization camp in Hampshire County. Inzamam-ul-Haq has also convinced the Pakistan Board to send the team two weeks earlier to England.

“Inzi has gone through the records of the England team in Tests particularly in English conditions and is aware they thrashed India 3-1 in the summer of 2014 despite India boosting of a world class batting line-up,” a PCB source was quoted by PTI.

Also read – Old horses Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan fittest cricketers in the Pakistan team

He said that Inzamam has also considered and analyzed recent Test record of England and also analyzed how they overcame South Africa in the recent Test series. “The feeling is that while Pakistan s batting will be really tested out in English conditions the bowling has enough depth to cause problems for the English batsmen, something that other teams which have played against England have lacked notably when India lost in 2014,” the source said.

“Inzamam realizes that Pakistan’s biggest problem is that since 2012/13 winter when they toured South Africa, the Pakistani Test squad was confined to playing in the UAE where pitches did not test the batsmen,”

“The chief selector knows that since Pakistan will be playing a Test series outside Asia and Middle East for the first time since the winter of 2012/13 how the Pakistani adapt to the English conditions will decide the series,” he added.

Pakistan is currently ranked third in the ICC Test ranking and England at no.4, but there has been a lot of concerns over their batting performance, which is mainly restricted to batting friendly conditions.