Pakistan v England, 1st Test, Abu Dhabi, 13-17 October, 2015

Well it looks like Jimmy T will come in for Jonny B. I can't see anything other than England being thrashed. We've had no real kind of preparation, just a couple of glorified net sessions, and we haven't even looked particularly impressive in those.

England-

Cook(c)
Moeen  
Bell  
Root
Taylor  
Stokes  
Buttler+  
Rashid
Broad
Wood/Finn
Anderson


The white rabbit figures are meant to indicate 'rabbits in the headlights'. Creative, no?

I see Mo knocked up a handy little 19 in his last innings.

Oh. Innings, plural.


Well, at least Buttler scored 40 half-out.

And people wonder why no-one wins away series anymore.

I wouldn't stick us in a bracket with others. I'm surprised we win series, let alone away ones.

Finn ruled out with a "stress injury" in his foot. Which I'd presume will rule him out of the entire tour, but Cook seems to think he might be all better for the second Test. Sounds like bollocks to me.

A stress injury - and he's bowled how many overs?

For Aussies (and Trev), this is on Fox 3 from 5.00 pm.

Yasir Shah is apparently in doubt with a back spasm. For most teams this would be great news, but I fully expect England to collapse against any spinner they come up against.

Yasir, Nasir, Threebagsfullsir.

So here we go. At least it can't go much worse than last time "in the desert", when Saeed Ajuckmal was in his pomp.


Or can it?

Temps expected for next 5 days: 35C, 37, 38, 37, 37. A nice welcome by Abu Dhabi for the Englishmen coming from a chilly Autumn.

skully wrote:Temps expected for next 5 days: 35C, 37, 38, 37, 37. A nice welcome by Abu Dhabi for the Englishmen coming from a chilly Autumn.

phurt not sufficiently hot to fry an egg or ensure pom white bread s toasted

Yasir Shah ruled out.

But.....Pakistan win the toss and bat. Game. Over.

So Moeen is the next lamb to the slaughter.

Desultory Crowd

To be expected when 80% of the population are expats in the Country specifically to work (and it's now working hours).

Oh, and it's 37 degrees and booze isn't allowed.

Pakistan may have dropped a huge bollock not having a third spinner in their squad - four seamers and one spinner in these conditions looks very unbalanced.

What odds the first wicket of the series would be off an Anderson bouncer that clatters into the batsman's helmet and onto the stumps?

Henry wrote:What odds the first wicket of the series would be off an Anderson bouncer that clatters into the batsman's helmet and onto the stumps?

Crikey,if he can't play a bouncer from Anderson on that pitch...............................

Anderson the Enforcer.

Oxenford missing no balls from Broad.

Bell - you tosser!

FFS!

Ian Bell has been a dreadful slip fielder for the last six months now.

Who said Bell is Simmo?

I honestly think he's dropped more than he's caught in the last 10 tests England have played.