Pakistan start England tour
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from June 1982.
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Imran leads a team of many talents seasoned in test cricket and determined to make amends for a mediocre performance on their England tour four years ago.
At that time Imran and four other leading Pakistani players had signed for Kerry Packer's world series cricket and their weakened test team lost 2-0 to England in a frustrating summer ruined by rain. Pakistan have had their troubles since, notably the controversy over the captaincy earlier this year when a number of prominent players refused to play under Javed Miandad. Javed defused the crisis by abdicating from the captaincy and the selectors responded by naming Imran as captain, ahead of former skippers Majid Khan and wicketkeeper Wasim Bari.
Imran will bear a heavy load as Pakistan's main strike bowler, although he will have slid support from his longtime opening partner Sarfraz Nawaz and spinners Abdul Qadir and Iqbal Qasim. Pakistan's strength remains with their formidable middleorder batting, led by Zaheer, Javed and Imran's cousin Majid
Zaheer scored double hundred against England on both his previous tours and although his test record is not as impressive as his test record as his technique and range of shots would suggest, he will be the batsman the England bowlers fear most. Javed has been a prolific test run scorer since his debut six years ago, combining a wide range of shots with a gift for improvisation unmatched by any contemporary batsman apart from the West Indian genius Viv Richards.
Majid is probably the most gifted of all the Pakistani batsmen and at 36 still retains the ability to carve any attack in the world apart when the mood is upon him.
