KARACHI, April 1 (Reuters) – Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq,
who engineered a 3-0 test whitewash of England earlier this
year, has backed the world’s top-ranked side to bounce back in
Sri Lanka because of the strength of their bowlers.
After losing all three tests to Pakistan in the UAE, Andrew
Strauss and his men were also humbled by Sri Lanka in their
opening test last week and need a quick reaction for the second
test starting in Colombo on Tuesday.
“England has a top class bowling attack and when you have
quality bowlers at your disposal you can always make a strong
comeback in any conditions,” Misbah told Reuters in an
interview.
“The pitches in Dubai when we played them were more
difficult for batting. The pitches are better in Sri Lanka so
England can come back.
“They lost to Sri Lanka in one session. They need to focus
on the test session by session. When we played them it was a
session-to-session battle for us because we knew they were a
dangerous side and their bowlers were very good.”
England’s main downfall has been their batsmen’s inability
to play spin effectively.
“They are competent against spinners in England but they
struggle due to the different conditions they find in the
subcontinent or recently in UAE,” Misbah added.
“The reason is that their batsmen play in the Asian region
only after long gaps.”
The Pakistan captain dismissed suggestions that England did
not deserve their number one test status and gave his support to
the current ranking system employed by the International Cricket
Council.
“They became the number one test side after playing well not
only at home but in Australia and other countries. But they are
in danger of losing their number one ranking if they don’t
comeback in Sri Lanka,” Misbah said.
“I think the system is fair and objective. It takes into
consideration home and away matches. But for a country like
Pakistan, it becomes difficult to improve our ranking because we
haven’t played at home since 2009.”
(Editing by Mark Meadows;
mark.meadows@thomsonreuters.com
;
+44 207 542 7933; Twitter: @mark_meadows; Reuters Messaging:
mark.meadows.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; For
the sports blog Left Field: http://blogs.reuters.com/sport))
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