Saud Shakeel indicates towards England’s assertive gameplay against them (Source – Twitter/X)
With England coming off a high in terms of winning five out of the six Tests played during the English summer, it would not be expected by many that they would change their approach in the upcoming series against Pakistan. The Bazball style of play has been linked with the English system for quite some time now, and it is hard to see them deviating from their attacking brand of cricket.
However, vice-captain and middle-order batter of Pakistan, Saud Shakeel, felt that the opposition’s dominant approach to the game might as well be leveraged against the visitors. Besides, Shakeel pointed out the shortcomings he could deduce from Pakistan’s series loss to Bangladesh but made it a point that the team’s motto was to channel their entire energy towards their plan of action.
“England always play attacking cricket, and that always gives you an opportunity to induce mistakes in them and to use their mistakes to stay in the game,” Shakeel was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
“We’re struggling with the bat from time to time, and unable to convert starts into huge scores. That’s a point of concern. The series that’s over is now in the past. Admittedly, we didn’t play well there. Our focus is on what’s ahead. But we don’t follow any particular style playing cricket, we play according to the requirement of any situation, which gives us flexibility,” he further added.
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We just let them make their mistakes, that might work out better for us: Shakeel
Meanwhile, speaking on the playing conditions Multan has seemingly to offer, Saud Shakeel, hinted that one approach Pakistan might follow would be to allow England to fall into their own trap of being overzealous in their boldness. Notably, Shakeel was the second most leading run-getter for Pakistan with 346 runs in six innings, when England last toured the Asian nation in 2022. Hence he would be looking forward to improving his numbers this time around.
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“The strategy will be decided on the spot depending on how England play. Reverse-swing may also come into play depending on the weather and the pitch [that is] prepared. If a team is being aggressive, it can be easy to get sucked into their style of play and over-attack. If they’re attacking, and we just let them make their mistakes, that might work out better for us,” Shakeel concluded.