MULTAN, OCT 5: Pakistan play England in a three-Test series starting Monday in Multan with the visitors favourites to inflict more damage on a team mired in a painful losing streak.
England's 3-0 whitewash on their last trip to Pakistan in 2022 was the first clean sweep by any visiting team to the country, and plunged the hosts into a slump that has left them winless in their last 10 home Tests.
The visitors will be buoyed by memories of that famous win, but begin the series without talismanic leader Ben Stokes, who will miss the first Test due to a hamstring injury.
While England sit in third place in the ICC Test rankings, five spots above Pakistan, they travel to South Asia with an inexperienced pace attack following the retirement of James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
Pakistan, meanwhile, are known for their unpredictability and will be desperate to wipe away the humiliation of a shock 2-0 defeat at the hands of low-ranked Bangladesh last month.
Captain Shan Masood, whose tenure has been marked by a run of five consecutive defeats, said his players were motivated to prove themselves.
"We took steps in the right direction in Australia despite losing, but we could not take them forward in the Bangladesh series," Masood said this week.
"We are eager to stage a comeback in this important series."
Pakistan cricket is flailing in all formats, with a revolving door of bosses and allegations of nepotism crushing the development of the nation's most popular sport.
Superstar batsman Babar Azam relinquished the white-ball captaincy this week, saying he wanted to focus on his batting after a run-drought of 16 Test innings without a half-century.
The three Tests in Multan and Rawalpindi scheduled to wrap up on October 28 will be the first trial of the 29-year-old's renewed commitment to his craft.
"We all know how good a player he is," said Masood. "The good thing is that he is not out of form, and we can hope he is just one innings away from producing his best."
While all eyes are on Azam to score big, Pakistan will hope pace spearheads Shaheen Shah Afridi -- who missed the 2022 Test with a knee injury -- and Naseem Shah can crack England's robust batting order. —AFP
