Published: Sep 15, 2015, 04:21 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 15, 2015, 05:40 PM (IST)
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced their squads for the upcoming tour of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in which they are slotted to face Pakistan in three Tests, four One-Day Internationals (ODI) and three Twenty20 Internationals (T20I), with the first match scheduled to take place on October 13. Alastair Cook and Eoin Morgan have been appointed the captains of the Test and the limited-overs squads respectively. Alex Hales and newcomer Zafar Ansari have been included in the 16-man Test squad, which witnesses the return of regular members such as James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Joe Root. Wicketkeeper-batsmen Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler have both been included in the side. READ: Moeen Ali eyes Adam Lyth’s opening spot
Adam Lyth has been drafted out of the Test side after a horror run in the recent Ashes 2015, in which he scored a mere 115 runs in nine innings at an average of 12.77. Hales has been included in all three formats, despite going through a rough patch in the one-day series against Australia, in which England were handed an eight-wicket thrashing in the final to lose the series 2-3. The T20I squad features relatively inexperienced members such as Stephen Parry and James Vince. While Anderson and Broad, who were in destructive form during England’s victorious Ashes 2015 campaign, will lead the attack with the red-ball, they have been rested from the limited-overs assignments, in which Steven Finn is expected to lead along with the likes of David Willey and Mark Wood.
Spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid will look forward to make the most of the turning tracks in which Pakistani spinners such as Yasir Shah and Zulfiqar Babar have been known to make merry in the past. They will be joined by newcomer Ansari, who bowls orthodox spin for Surrey and made his international debut in the washed out ODI against Ireland at Malahide earlier this year.
According to the itinerary posted on essexcricket.org.uk, the England team is scheduled to arrive at the UAE on September 30, following which they gear up for the three Tests that are scheduled to begin on October 13, 22 and November 1 respectively, with the ODIs and T20Is to follow. The tour will be an important one for Pakistan in their bid to qualify for the 2017 Champions Trophy.
The last time the two sides squared off in the Arabian Peninsula in 2011, Pakistan whitewashed the three-Test series, before the tourists did a complete reversal in the one-dayers to record a 4-0 blanking.
Test squad:
Alastair Cook (c), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Zafar Ansari, Jonny Bairstow, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler (wk), Steven Finn, Alex Hales (wk), Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, Mark Wood.
ODI squad:
Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), Steven Finn, Alex Hales (wk), Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, James Taylor, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
T20I squad:
Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), Alex Hales (wk), Chris Jordan, Stephen Parry, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Reece Topley, James Vince, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
