I have just visited England for three days for an earthquake fund-raiser and while in the country I was able to see just how bad their team is suffering with injuries.
As we all know now, they are going to be without quite a few of their key players for the first Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s this week, with top players like their captain Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones, Steve Harmison, Ashley Giles and James Anderson all out.
There is obviously a lot of talent and depth in the country, as we could see when the team came back to draw the series in India recently and also the way their ‘A’ team beat Sri Lanka, but if their injury situation is still the same by the time we arrive to play them in two months it would be a shame.
I am hoping that all their big-name players get fit and are ready to face us for the first Test at Lord’s in July. We don’t want to win the series and hear people saying how we only won because half of the England team was missing with injury. We want to beat their strongest team as we have every confidence in our abilities.
When you play at the top level one of the greatest things is the challenge of testing your skills against the best and this will be the case in England. I want to be facing the attack that gave Australia so many problems. I don’t mean any disrespect to the players that have or may replace them as they are in the team on merit and I know they will still provide us with a tough battle, I’m sure, as they showed in India.
The conditions will also be much different to what we have been used to in Pakistan and Sri Lanka but it is exciting to overcome these challenges. I am currently seventh in the word rankings and I am very proud just to be in the top ten but it would be even better if I could have a great series in England and break into that top five. Let’s see.
At the fundraiser there were also players like Moin Khan, Rashid Latif and Shahid Afridi. It was a nice occasion at a venue in Edgware, London and hopefully lots of money will be raised for our people who are struggling after the disaster.
On a different subject I was pleased that Shahid bhai (brother) decided to change his mind and reverse his decision to take a year out of Test cricket. I think he was a little tired. I spoke to him at the time and said, ‘What you doing, man, we need you.’ Any team needs a player like Shahid Afridi. Thanks God he will be with us in England now.
Since getting back from Sri Lanka I have taken things quite easy and done a bit of fishing in Karachi with my brother Ayub and his son. We caught plenty of Sea Bream. I’ve played quite a bit of football also, which I love to do.
Speaking of football, I was pleased my team Arsenal qualified for the Champions League yesterday though it was tough on Tottenham. Thierry Henry is a very special player.
I won’t be doing too much for the next couple of weeks as we had a very tough season. The squad meets again next month to do some conditioning training and fitness drills and then we will net and get back to our cricket skills before we leave for England. It’s going to be a great series.
Re: "I Want to Play a Fully Fit England " Younis Khan
haha my sentiments exactly. this is old newssss. but since we’re on the topic anyways, how do you think younis khan will play against england?
he struggled against them last winter in pakistan… to the point where (in typical pakistani bandwagon fan fashion) people wanted him dropped from the team.
but he’s shown some serious leadership and class against both india and sri lanka… especially the last test series against sri lanka where he was amazing.
do you think this wave of good play will carry over into england? does anyone have stats as to how good/bad he is historically against them?
Re: "I Want to Play a Fully Fit England " Younis Khan
he struggled against them last winter in pakistan... to the point where (in typical pakistani bandwagon fan fashion) people wanted him dropped from the team.
but he's shown some serious leadership and class against both india and sri lanka... especially the last test series against sri lanka where he was amazing.
do you think this wave of good play will carry over into england? does anyone have stats as to how good/bad he is historically against them?
Hindsight suggests that he will struggle scoring runs on seaming wickets. A 62% of LBW dismissals against England fails to support his case, either. If he manages to hold onto the pace-techniques of Flintoff, Hoggard, Harmison and Plunkett/Mahmood, there is a definite chance that his average will further strengthen, but until then, he, just as others, is another weak link in our batting line-up.
Re: "I Want to Play a Fully Fit England " Younis Khan
I believe he can be good in any condition. Its more to do with his temeprament and mental thing than the condition or team he's playing against. I have seen him score freely in New Zealand on seaming pitches when no other batsmen could middle the ball. He is definitely a hardworking cricketer and if he believes he can do it, I'll put my weight behind him.
Re: "I Want to Play a Fully Fit England " Younis Khan
I think he will get the odd decent score in England but don't think he will score as heavily as he did against India or Sri Lanka. He is a limited player but works hard. I personally don't like watching him as I prefer someone like Youhana more natural and flair player.
The fact that there are not many quality batsmen around or being produced by Pakistan- he will be around for sometime especially as the batting is likely to get further weak after Inzi's retirement.
