We will have a controversy free series in England: Saeed

Mon, Jul 26 10 09:52 PM

Karachi, July 26 (PTI) Pakistan team manager in England, Yawar Saeed is confident that his players will not face the same controversies and scandals that the national squad was subjected to during their earlier tours. Yawar said from London that he had been to England twice before as manager and he was aware of the pressures that were exerted by the media on touring teams. "But I think the Pakistan team also lot of support in England and we are well equipped to handle every sort of pressure during the series," he said. "I am confident we should have a controversy free series and the focus should be on the cricket itself," he said. The last time Pakistan toured England in 2006 when Zaheer Abbas was manager, the infamous Oval Test forfeiture incident took place before that in 1992 Pakistani bowlers were accused of ball tampering. Yawar said he expected a tougher series against England compared to Australia. "The English bowlers are more adapt at exploiting the conditions in England compared to the Australians and they are playing well. So it will be a tough series for us," he said. "But our bowlers are also bowling well and they are ready for the big challenge ahead of them, I think we have one of the best bowling attacks in the world," he added. Pakistan drew the two Test series against Australia 1-1 and from July 29 engage in a four-Test series with England with the first match at Nottingham. Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Aamer wrecked havoc in the second Test at Leeds against Australia and so far in the seven Tests they have appeared together they have snapped up 61 wickets against top opposition. Yawar, however, admitted that the fragile batting remained an area of concern for the team as well. "But you must remember that the present middle order we have they have played just 12 Tests altogether so this is a lot of inexperience we are talking about. "We want to give them more opportunities and we are confident that with time this concern about our batting will also go away," he said. Yawar made it clear that there was no plan to call up any batting reinforcement for the first Test against England and the team would be selected from the same 16 players that were there for the second Test against Australia. "We are not calling up any replacement for Shahid Afridi for the first Test and we will see after the match," he added. PTI Cor ATK

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