London (Reuters): England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope has no doubt that Chris Woakes will expertly spearhead their pace attack in the three-test series in Pakistan beginning in Multan on Monday.

England swept a three-test series on their last tour of Pakistan but the look of their bowling attack has completely changed since James Anderson, Mark Wood and Ollie Robinson troubled the home batters two years ago.

Anderson has retired, Wood is out with an elbow injury while Robinson has been dropped leaving Woakes to lead a pace attack also including Gus Atkinson, who has played six tests, and debutant Brydon Carse.

“He’s still got that real hunger and desire to play a lot more test cricket, which is brilliant for us,” Pope said of Woakes on Sunday.

“He’s been working hard on his game to try and find different ways of taking wickets on different surfaces.”

“Any side was going to miss Jimmy Anderson but at the same time, we’ve seen this summer that guys can step up and fill in for him.

“Chris Woakes, the skills that he’s got probably operating at a fairly similar pace, he’s been working hard on his skills so he can step up and be that real leader of the attack.”

Atkinson’s pace and reverse-swing skills would come in handy in Pakistan, said Pope, who also had high expectations of Carse.

“We’ve obviously got Gus Atkinson off the back of a really hot summer. A bit of extra pace with him and Brydon Carse too. So I think we’ve got the skill set to fill that gap that Jimmy’s left.

“Obviously, it’s never going to be easy, but it’s going to be a great opportunity for those guys to learn and to bowl in some different conditions and use their pace and their skills.”

Anderson, now England’s bowling coach, will join the squad in Multan soon.

England are without regular skipper Ben Stokes, who is recovering from a hamstring injury.

Pakistan are smarting from 2-0 whitewash by Bangladesh last month but captain Shan Masood said they knew how to neutralise England’s aggressive style as he named their playing XI.

“We know their style but at the end of the day it’s about what we need to do to counter that,” Shan said.

The Week 5 festivities for “College GameDay” will visit one of the biggest games of the season as the Alabama Crimson Tide takes on the Georgia Bulldogs in a top-five SEC showdown.

The clash is another addition to a long list of crucial matchups between the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs. Of the past eight games between the two powers, four have decided the SEC champion and two have decided the national champion.

Georgia and Alabama haven’t competed against each other in the regular season since 2020, when the eventual national champion Crimson Tide outscored the Bulldogs 21-0 in the second half en route to a 41-24 victory.

Here are the best signs from “College GameDay” in Tuscaloosa, Alabama:

DUBAI: India delivered an all-round performance against Pakistan to secure their maiden victory in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday.

Earlier, Indian bowlers excelled with the ball and restricted Pakistan women’s team to 105 in the highly-anticipated match.

Fatima Sana’s decision to bat first backfired as her side could only accumulate 105/8 in the allotted 20 overs.

The Green Shirts had a disastrous start to their innings as they lost opener Gull Feroza in first over of the match.

Later, Sidra Amin and Omaima Sohail perished within seven overs with the scoreboard reading 33/3.

Following the early debacle, Muneeba Ali offered some fight with her cautious 17-run knock before falling victim to Shreyanka Patil, leaving Pakistan in tatters at 41/4.

Meanwhile, all-rounder Aliya Riaz also failed to reach double figures as she fell victim to Arundhati Reddy.

Skipper Sana and Nida Dar then tried to settle things down, culminating with the former’s dismissal in the 14th over.

Pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals, while Dar (28) ticked the scoreboard singlehandedly until finally walking back to the dugout in the last over. Syed Aroob Shah scored a 17-ball fourteen taking the Sana-led team to 105.

Reddy bagged three wickets and Patil took two while Renuka Singh and Deepti Sharma and Asha Sobhana struck out one batter apiece.

Dar remained the top-scorer for Pakistan with a 34-ball 28.

Earlier, the Green Shirts won the toss and decided to bat first against the arch-rivals India.

India have to recover quickly after facing defeat against New Zealand in the opening match while the Sana-led side won against the Asia-Cup champions Sir Lanka by 31 runs on Thursday.

In regard to this match, Pakistan’s skipper, Sana while talking to ICC, said that she aims to continue the attacking brand of cricket her side has recently adapted against India.

“I have been watching that whichever team we played against — played attacking cricket,” Sana said ahead of the big contest.

Squads

Pakistan: Fatima Sana (c), Aliya Riaz, Gull Feroza, Muneeba Ali, Nashra Sundhu, Nida Dar, Omaima Sohail, Sadia Iqbal, Sidra Amin, Syeda Aroob Shah, and Tuba Hassan.

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (WK), Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh, Asha Sobhana, Shreyanka Patil, and Sajana Sajeevan.

LAHORE: Pakistan on Sunday announced their playing XI for the first Test against England set to start at Multan Cricket Stadium on Monday (tomorrow). 

“This is our best playing XI […] Aamir Jamal’s inclusion will be beneficial. We have maintained our batting line-up to ensure consistency,” said red-ball captain Shan Masood while speaking at a press conference.

It is to be noted that three-match series is part of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 and will see the Men in Green eyeing a comeback in the longer format of the game after suffering a humiliating whitewash against Bangladesh last month.

Expressing his views on the upcoming match, Masood said that the visitors — who secured a 2-1 victory against Sri Lanka in September — have a balanced team and underscored the need to play strong cricket on the field.

Addressing England’s skipper Ben Stokes’ unavailability in the first Test, the captain said: “Stokes’s absence will definitely affect England, but their playing XI is still strong, he is one of the world’s best all-rounders.”

“England have good seamers,” he remarked.

“We have come close to losing in the past [….] A Test match is a five-day game, so you can’t have one strategy,” he added, noting that a rotation policy has to be introduced for workload management regarding the fast bowlers.

Suitable conditions for spinners, seamers

Meanwhile, expressing his views, England captain Ollie Pope said that the conditions were different in Multan and would help the spinners and seamers.

“It will be interesting to see how the pitch plays out […] The [team] plan depends on the pitch and will be chalked out accordingly, ” he said while speaking to the media.

Noting that England bowlers will try to get as many wickets as possible in these conditions, Pope underscored the significance for consistency in the performance of the spinners.

“We have two regular spinners meaning that we may not be required to test Joe Root’s skills [in bowling department,” he added.

“The Pakistan team, though not playing well recently, is a tough team nevertheless [and] with bowlers like Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah, we have to play good cricket,” remarked the England captain.

Playing XIs for first Test

Pakistan: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmad

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir