Wahab Riaz says whole Pakistan team is behind Mohammad Amir

Are Pakistan ready to face England at Lord’s?

Former England cricket skipper Nasser Hussain said he would have picked in-form wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler over Gary Ballance for England’s first Test against Pakistan at Lord’s starting on Thursday.

Fellow left-arm quick Amir’s career came to a dramatic halt during a Test against England at Lord’s in 2010, when he and new-ball partner Mohammad Asif were caught bowling no-balls to order on the instructions of captain Salman Butt as part of a tabloid newspaper sting operation.

“You can not stop what people say and what people think”, Riaz said at Lord’s in a spiky and bullish press conference on Tuesday ahead of the first Investec Test. “It doesn’t matter what people think and we are not here to answer what people think”.

The days of Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga and Ajantha Mendis providing Sri Lanka with one of the most threatening bowling attacks in world cricket are long gone and the current crop will offer opposition batsmen very few sleepless nights. The guys did not shake hands at the end of the test. We felt empty when we took the wickets to win the match and did not celebrate.

Last Christmas in Durban, Anderson was again on the sidelines.

The absence at Lord’s of both Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler is a reminder, depending on a tendency to optimism or pessimism, of the talents England can turn to if they need to down the line or the ones which will be missing in the first instance.

Even so, he is steeling himself for repeat circumstances.

Stuart Broad will lead the bowling attack when the Lord’s Test begins next week and he knows plenty about Ball’s capabilities having spent time up close with the 25-year-old at Nottinghamshire.

“I told them not to go wrong”.

“He has had a slight elbow niggle to make him rest and make sure he is 100 per cent fit for this series”.

The indications remain that Anderson will be back soon, maybe as early as next week. But, in the past year, things are getting better and better. “Good pace, gets the ball to reverse swing, so it will be interesting to see how that goes throughout the series”.

Every time the Green-shirts visit England, they hope to emulate the exploits of Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram but in the last two tours, they haven’t managed to do well, most notably due to faulty captaincy and coaching. Playing for a department in Pakistan is like being picked for a franchise in the IPL or the Big Bash: it means you could make it big time, after being removed from the rut of routine domestic first-class cricket.