Batting a worry for Pakistan

Buoyed by their incredible bowling performance in the second Test match against Australia at Headingley, Pakistan will go into the four-Test series against England confident of reversing the result from their previous series in the country, which was marred by the controversial forfeiture at The Oval. In previous Tests between the two teams, England have the better numbers, but Pakistan have a bowling attack which could be lethal in favourable conditions, as Australia found out. Both England and Pakistan have much better records at home than away. In the last three series, though, the honours have been even, with each team winning one series, and one ending in a draw.

England's batsmen have performed quite superbly against Pakistan in recent years. Ian Bell has been prolific, scoring four centuries in seven Tests. Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood have good records as well, and those numbers plus the consistency of the opening pair definitely give England a strong advantage on the batting front.

Pakistan, on the other hand, have chopped and changed their batting line-up so often that only two batsmen from their current line-up have played Tests in England, and three from the top six have played against them. Butt and Imran Farhat, the openers, have shown some consistency at the top of the order, and they'll have the responsibility of ensuring the team gets off to decent starts.

The Australian pace attack struggled to find swing, but England's bowling could be a handful in home conditions. Stuart Broad and James Anderson have proven to be excellent in swinging conditions and together with Graeme Swann, they were instrumental in regaining the Ashes in 2009.

Danish Kaneria has been the highest wicket taker for Pakistan over the last five years, but his wickets have cost him nearly 40 runs each. The bigger threat for England will probably be the pace attack: Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer have the pace and quality to create inroads, as they proved in the series against Australia. Umar Gul, with his exceptional control, could also be a handful in England.

Pakistan have also been hurt by their lack of consistency in the middle order in the last three years. Their batting average over the last three years in away games is one of the lowest among the top Test playing nations. The average partnership per wicket for Pakistan over the last three years outside the subcontinent is summarised in the table below. The opening pairing of Salman Butt and Imran Farhat seem settled, but the middle order is quite brittle and often the lower middle order has had to bail them out. The recent form of Azhar Ali and Umar Akmal does seem to be a silver lining though.

Pakistan play their four Tests at Trent Bridge, Edgbaston, The Oval and Lord's. England have enjoyed a good record at Lord's and The Oval in the last five years, but haven't been as impressive at Trent Bridge, winning two and losing two matches. Pakistan last played a Test match at Trent Bridge way back in 1967, going down by ten wickets on that occasion.

The batting and bowling stats for the four venues is summarised in the table below. Lord's and The Oval have been the best batting venues while Trent Bridge and Edgbaston have traditionally been tougher venues to score at. Trent Bridge has seen the lowest number of centuries scored, which suggests the first Test starting on Thursday could again be dominated by the bowlers.