Pakistan will face England in a three-match Test series that starts on Monday (October 7) in Multan. During the first red-ball against the Ollie Pope-led side, star Pakistani pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi will have a chance to create history and become the first bowler from his country to take 100 wickets in the World Test Championship.
The 24-year-old left-arm pacer, who made his Test debut for Pakistan against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi on December 3, 2018, has 93 wickets to his name in 25 WTC matches played so far, and he needs 7 wickets in the upcoming three matches to complete his century of dismissals.
A total of 11 bowlers have dismissed 100 or more batters in the WTC so far, but there is no one in the list from Pakistan. After Shaheen, who was dropped from Pakistan’s playing XI for the 2nd Test against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi last month, Nassem Shah is the second leading wicket-taker in WTC for PAK.
The 21-year-old right-arm fast bowler has accounted for the dismissal of 54 batters in 18 Tests played so far. Like Shaheen, Naseem was also dropped from Pakistan’s playing XI for the second Test against Bangladesh but is expected to lead the Shan Masood-led side’s pace attack in the Multan Cricket Stadium from Monday onwards.
Fast bowling all-rounder Aamir Jamal, who impressed with his all-round show in the third Test against Australia in Sydney earlier this year, is also included in Pakistan’s squad for the series opener against England, and he also could get a chance to play in the first Test.
Apart from Shaheen, Babar Azam will also have a chance to achieve a big milestone during the Test series against England. If the 29-year-old right-handed batter manages to score at least 38 runs in the first Test, then he will become the third batter in the world after Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to score 4000 runs at least in all three formats of the game.
Babar has 3962 runs to his name in 54 Tests played so far for Pakistan. He has also scored 5729 runs in 117 ODIs and 4145 runs in 123 T20Is.
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