England play their first-ever Test in Sharjah on Sunday...
Friday 30 October 2015 10:45, UK
England need a win in Sharjah.
After slipping to defeat in the second Test in Dubai, England need to beat Pakistan in the third Test to draw the series.
With bat dominating ball in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, what can they expect from the Sharjah surface? Will it spin? Will it seam? And what can we learn from past games at the ground?
How have England fared before?
They haven't. England didn't play a Test at the venue on their last tour of the UAE against Pakistan in 2012, although they did play a pair of two-day warm-up matches for the current series at the ground.
Alastair Cook and Joe Root hit half-centuries in the first game (but when don't they score runs for England?) and Moeen Ali (3-41) found some success and spin with the ball. James Taylor - in contention for selection for the final Test - scored fifty here in the second warm-up game, while Steven Finn's impressive 4-16 was his last involvement on the tour before being sent home injured.
England have played 13 ODIs in Sharjah, winning seven. They got the better of Pakistan in three of five contests between the two, including their last game at the ground in 1999 when Graham Thorpe hit 62 and Mark Ealham took 4-30 in a 62-run win that sent England in confident mood into a home World Cup. Uh, moving on…
How about Pakistan?
Pakistan have struggled the most here of all the venues in the Emirates, losing three of their seven Tests, compared to two defeats in nine in Dubai. Of course, they are unbeaten in eight in Abu Dhabi.
There's more good news for England as Pakistan were soundly beaten by an innings and 80 runs in their last Test in Sharjah, against New Zealand a year ago. Brendon McCullum smashed 202 off just 188 balls, which helped New Zealand post a staggering 690 in their first innings. Sadly, the match will also be remembered for having a day's break as news arrived on the second morning of the tragic death of Australia's Phillip Hughes.
McCullum's knock bettered Mohammad Hafeez's 197 for Pakistan, but the opener's score, and 137 for Asad Shafiq in the second innings, mean two of the current team will have fond memories when returning for the third Test. Shafiq's hundred was the first of four in his last eight Tests, doubling his total from his first 32 after debut in 2010, while Younus Khan is the highest run-scorer at the ground, with 507 runs in seven matches.
What do we know about Sharjah?
Surprisingly Sharjah has hosted the most one-dayers in international cricket, and by some distance too, with its 218 ODIs comfortably eclipsing the SCG's 151 and England's best, The Oval, with 58.
Pakistan faced Sri Lanka in the first ODI held at the ground, in 1984, while the first ever Test was in 2002 as Pakistan played the West Indies in the first of four Tests held at the venue that year - two against the Caribbean outfit, two against Australia - due to security concerns in Pakistan. It wouldn't host another Test till 2011 though, with no international cricket played there between April 2003 and February 2010 due to allegations of match-fixing at the ground.
England will be pleased to see it's historically a results pitch, with only one Test of seven finishing in a draw, and that was a rain-affected rather than bat-dominated game between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2011.
Will spin be a factor?
Yes. But it hasn't always been. Spin accounted for only 19 of the 67 wickets to fall in the first two Tests in Sharjah. But in New Zealand's win there last year, off-spinner Mark Craig took a Test-best 7-94, and match figures of 10-203, as 21 of the 30 wickets to fall, did so to spin.
The good news for England is that although spin will be a factor, Sharjah wasn't actually a happy hunting ground for Pakistan's spin duo Yasir Shah and Zulfiqar Babar last year. Yasir took 4-193, going at 4.36 an over, while Zulfiqar fared even worse, going wicket-less and conceding 135 at 5.86 an over.
Shane Warne - unsurprisingly - is the leading wicket-taker at the ground with 16 wickets over two Tests, at an average of 9.62. He helped orchestrate Pakistan's most embarrassing defeat in the UAE, an innings-and-198-run loss, as a Warne-inspired Australia skittled them for 59 and 53 in their two innings. Over to you, Adil Rashid…
Live coverage of the third Test between Pakistan and England starts at 5.30am, Sunday, Sky Sports 2. You can also watch without a contract on NOW TV.
