The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and Opinions2. Wahab Riaz
The man from Lahore will enter the test series against England with a fairly modest record in this format of the game. Despite having great potential he has failed to perform consistently in the test arena and this is something he will be looking to put right. Riaz has a number of attributes to his advantage including his slingy left arm action and the rare ability to bowl the ball at speeds in excess 90mph.
In recent series England have struggled against quality left-arm seam bowling, with Trent Boult, Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc all capitalising on England’s indecision. Riaz will look to expose these apparent flaws by trying to find the speed and aggression that made him so potent in Pakistan’s World Cup match against Australia when he had Shane Watson in all sorts of bother during one of the most ferocious spells of the competition. Should he replicate that form in October then England’s batsmen will certainly have their work cut out.
Despite the conditions not suiting the faster bowlers, Riaz will have the home knowledge and will believe he can follow in the path of Shoaib Akthar who famously destroyed England on typically slow pitches in the 2005 series.
