An England Test against an Asian side. A ten-wicket margin of victory inside three days. A spinner taking ten wickets. The only surprise about the result was that it was England who lost!
Pakistan's emphatic beating of the World Number Ones in Dubai has given the sport a gentle little shake, and Andrew Strauss may be forgiven for casting a nervous glance over his shoulder at resurgent Australia and South Africa. However, the result doesn't mean that England are really 'India in disguise' or that Pakistan are suddenly world-beaters. It just demonstrates that cricket remains a fascinating contest of bat versus ball and no match is a foregone conclusion.
England has a wonderful 2011 yet in Perth last winter they were given a severe drubbing by the Aussies amidst a series of innings victories. Even in the controversial series against Pakistan tour in 2010, the home side were easily defeated by four wickets after Matt Prior top scored in a disappointing first innings and a Pakistani fast bowler took five in the second. Significantly, only two of England's current XI have changed since then (Bell and Tremlett for Collingwood and Finn) while for Pakistan only two have remained (Azhar Ali and Saeed Ajmal). For England, 2011 was a year of consolidation and consistency at the top. For their opposition this week it was a major regrouping and a steady rebuild with a new-look team, albeit one led by a 36 year-old near-novice at Test level.
Misbah-ul-Haq has his critics who say he is too boring, too cautious, but those very characteristics have probably helped steady a very rocky and leaky ship following the PCB's bust-up with its older stars and the jailing of three of its young ones. The skipper, now 37, has an enviable win:loss ratio and has improved his batting average to a very tasty 46. Even in ODIs his strike rate is a creditable 75, which is on a par with Younis Khan, Dravid, Sarwan and Sangakkara. I wrote the other day about the merits of Saeed Ajmal and his ten-wicket haul was thoroughly well-deserved. Today it was Umar Gul who ripped through England's brittle top order, amongst whom only Jonathan Trott showed any skill, patience and judgement. Strauss, Cook, Bell and Pietersen mustered a pathetic 39 runs between them in the whole match, while Prior's unbeaten 70 was the only half-century. Swann rode his luck as ever, topping 30 in both innings and used his no-ball reprieve to strike some blows and make Pakistan bat again.
I'm glad Strauss and Flower didn't go down the football route and blame everyone else but themselves (referee, heat, Ajmal's bowling action and sneaky foreign way of bowling a straight one when his wrist action says 'off break', etc, etc). It doesn't take a genius to realise that he and his team-mates got things badly wrong on the pitch. Cook, Bell, Trott et al are too good to give up the ghost. They will have had a closer look at Ajmal, gained experience in the desert conditions and gathered the determination to put things right, just as they did after Jamaica 2009, The Oval and Perth 2010. Not playing silly shots and giving Ajmal seven LBW decisions would be a good start.
I see no reason to make major changes to the England side apart perhaps to give Finn a go instead of wicket-less Tremlett. While Pakistan will be brimming with confidence, I'm sure they won't get such an easy ride next week and England will probably level the series. Allow Ajmal to bamboozle them again and he could acquire the mantle of nemesis a la Shane Warne, and that's not the position to be in - unless you are the Pakistani spinner himself, that is.
