Pakistan pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi on Wednesday said that the side would get a lot of time to prepare themselves for the series against England.
Pakistan will face England in three Tests and three T20Is and ahead of the series, the pacer has said that the side would closely follow the series between England and West Indies as well.
England will face West Indies before the series against Pakistan. The series between England and Windies will mark the return of international cricket.
"We will reach England well before the Test matches start and we will have plenty of time on our hands. So we will get a lot of time to practice in the nets and prepare ourselves, that might help us to set the rhythm right," Afridi told reporters in a virtual press conference.
"We are hopeful of winning this bilateral series in England. If you look at the past results, it was a drawn Test series in 2016. Following that, we won the Champions Trophy in 2017. Our performances in England have been good in recent times, so we are hopeful of performing well once again," he added.
The young pacer also said that he would closely follow the series between England and West Indies to see how both teams are coping with the new rules in cricket.
"Before us, the West Indies will be playing against England. We will try to learn from them and how well they use the ball taking into consideration the new rules. As a bowler, I am getting a lot of time before the Test matches get underway, so I will try to work on my lines and lengths during the practice games," Afridi said.
As part of new rules issued by the International Cricket Council (ICC), saliva cannot be used by players to shine the ball, non-neutral umpires can be used for an international cricket match.
Pakistan squad for England tour: Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan, and Yasir Shah.
Shaheen Shah Afridi has so far played 8 Tests, 19 ODIs and 12 T20Is for Pakistan, and has managed to take 86 wickets across all formats.
( With inputs from ANI )
