When the first Test begins in Rawalpindi on Thursday, a revitalised England team led by captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum will experience Pakistani conditions for the first time in 17 years.
However, McCullum acknowledges that the low and sluggish grounds in Pakistan, where England’s last Test match was in 2005, present a unique challenge.
Pakistan has had to play the majority of its home Test matches over the past 20 years on neutral grounds, typically the United Arab Emirates, due to security concerns.
At a news conference, McCullum said, “We appreciate the scale of the challenge in front of us — but that’s terrific, and that’s why you want to play the game.”
But at the same time, we’ll attempt to choose that choice if given the chance to play aggressive and attacking cricket.
With their new strategy, England easily surpassed benchmarks of 277, 299, 296 and 378 to win Tests this year.
