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There was a time, not so long ago, when batsmen visiting Edgbaston would drool in anticipation. Not any more.

George Dobell at Edgbaston04-Jun-2010

ScorecardThere was a time, not so long ago, when batsmen visiting Edgbaston would drool in anticipation. The slow, flat pitches promised a chance to fill their boots and, between the start of 2007 and the end of 2009, only five championship matches here ended in an outright result as sides found it well nigh impossible to claim 20 wickets.Not any more. Edgbaston is a ground transformed. No side has taken maximum bonus batting bonus points here this season and, judging by the evidence of the first day of this match, they’re not about to start.While Somerset’s first innings total of 268 might appear, from a glance at the scorecard, a modest total, it is likely to prove highly competitive. The pitch is offering assistance to bowlers of all types, with Warwickshire’s seamers achieving steepling bounce and their spinners gaining sharp turn and bounce. Batting, at times, was very difficult indeed.Some made it appear more difficult than others, however. Arul Suppiah laboured for 96 minutes and 56 deliveries over his two runs – his dismissal in the 24th over was cricket’s version of a mercy killing – while Jos Buttler (17 balls) was little more fluent.Others, however, coped more easily. Marcus Trescothcik, after a sticky start, produced some characteristically thumping drives, while James Hildreth underlined the impression that he has taken a step forward this season. Looking compact and solid, yet unleashing some rasping square cuts, Hildreth passed 50 for the sixth time in his last seven championship innings. Craig Kisewetter, Peter Trego and Alfonso Thomas also weighed in with useful contributions.Somerset also benefited from Warwickshire’s profligacy in the field. Depending on your level of generosity, the hosts spurned at least half-a-dozen chances, with young keeper Richard Johnson responsible for half of them.Johnson, only 21 and playing just his second championship match, understandably struggled. He can rarely, if ever, have kept to a legspinner of Imran Tahir’s class and this dry pitch was hardly the easiest training ground. No doubt he will improve for the experience. It was a reminder, however, of how much Warwickshire miss Tim Ambrose. Or an in-from Tim Ambrose, anyway.As things stand, it appears that Ambrose is on his way out of Edgbaston. Out of contract at the end of the season, he is currently unable to maintain a place in the team after averaging just 11.63 with the bat in championship cricket.Rather than playing for the seconds, he has been given time off to clear his head and take stock. Already Hampshire have issued an official 28-day notice of approach and it is likely that other counties will follow. It seems hard to believe that it was just 15 months ago that he was playing, with some success, for the Test team in the Caribbean.None of Johnson’s reprieves were hugely costly. But, on a pitch where Trescothick reasoned that 250 was a good score and on which batting will only grow more difficult, they could prove crucial. Zander de Bruyn, on 12, was missed off an outside edge off the bowling of Woakes, before Kieswetter should have been stumped off Tahir when he had just seven. Trego, on 14, was also missed off the impressive Ant Botha.Johnson was not the only culprit. Varun Chopra, at midwicket, put down Trescothick on 32, off Maddy’s first ball, while Tahir missed a hard caught-and-bowled opportunity offered by Kartik and Rikki Clarke, at slip, put down a fiendishly tricky chance offered by Thomas off Botha.Clarke more than made amends with the ball, however. Bowling admirably straight and with some venom, he was easily the pick of the Warwickshire seamers and fully deserved to be handed the second new ball. After promising much but delivering little as a bowler for some years, there are now signs that Clarke – in tandem with Warwickshire’s new bowling coach, Graeme Welch – is beginning to harness his undoubted ability.Here he dislodged Suppiah, who had taken a stinging blow to the helmet from a Boyd Rankin bouncer, with a short ball that reared on the batsmen, before Buttler edged a similar delivery to slip and Trescothick was drawn into feeling for one angled across him. At the time Clarke had figures of 3 for 3.Botha was, perhaps surprisingly, the more potent of Warwickshire’s spinners. He dismissed Hildreth, trying to withdraw his bat, with an unplayable delivery that bounced and turned sharply, before Kieswetter and Phillips were caught at short leg as they struggled to nullify the spin. The wicket of Hildreth was his 300th in the first-class game.Botha also took a fine catch at deep mid-wicket to dismiss Trego, who was slog-sweeping, before Woakes returned to wrap-up the tail. Given the spinners’ success, however, it was something of a surprise that Westwood did not call them into the attack until the 50th (Imran) and 63rd (Botha) overs.Warwickshire faced only 16 deliveries before stumps, but it was enough to suggest they face a torrid examination on day two. Their first innings scores in their last three games (113 against Lancashire, 127 against Somerset and 100 against Durham) don’t exactly inspire confidence, so when Ian Westwood was caught at gully, trying to avoid a short ball that climbed on him from Charl Willoughby, it brought a familiar groan from the Edgbaston faithful. It will be a surprise if this match reaches a fourth day.

Steve O’Keefe’s impressive game for Australia A continued as he took seven wickets before his side gained a 305-run lead against Sri Lanka A

Cricinfo staff19-Jun-2010Australia A 208 and 6 for 200 (Bailey 57*) lead Sri Lanka A 103 (O’Keefe 7-35) by 305 runs

Scorecard
Steve O’Keefe’s 7 for 35 kept Australia A on top at Allan Border Field•Getty Images

Steve O’Keefe’s impressive game for Australia A continued as he took seven wickets before his side gained a 305-run lead with two days to play against Sri Lanka A. O’Keefe, the New South Wales left-arm orthodox spinner, scored 61 at Allan Border Field on Friday and backed up with a memorable haul as the visitors were dismissed for 103 before lunch.That gave Australia a 105-run advantage and they increased the comfort of their position by reaching 6 for 200 at stumps. George Bailey, the captain, finished unbeaten on 57 and O’Keefe was 28 not out, while Michael Klinger (32), Usman Khawaja (30) and Andrew McDonald (21) got starts. Dammika Prasad was the leading bowler with 3 for 34 while the offspinner Sachithra Senanayake, who took the new ball, had Ed Cowan lbw for 9.O’Keefe, who has played six first-class games, was as difficult to conquer as Senanayake was on the opening day when he captured 8 for 70. O’Keefe delivered 18 overs while taking 7 for 35 in an outstanding performance mixing control and destruction.Replying to Australia A’s 208, the Sri Lankans were in a reasonable position at 4 for 72 before losing their last six wickets for 31. O’Keefe grabbed four of those to add to his dismissals of Lahiru Thirimanne, the top scorer with 20, and Dinesh Chandimal (15) at the start of the day.

Paul Best will remain as England Under-19 captain for the remainder of the limited-overs leg of Sri Lanka’s visit

Cricinfo staff05-Aug-2010Paul Best will remain as England Under-19 captain for the remainder of the limited-overs leg of Sri Lanka’s visit. England bounced back from a heavy defeat to draw the Twenty20 matches 1-1, and now face Sri Lanka in five one-dayers, the first on Saturday at Fenner’s, Cambridge.There are two changes to England’s squad for the series, with Adam Rouse returning from Hampshire duties to keep wicket and Surrey allrounder Zafar Ansari included in the squad for the first time.”Sri Lanka is a very good side but we have shown over the course of the Test and Twenty20 series that we are more than capable of matching them and we are looking forward to a competitive One Day series,” said coach Adrian Birrell.England one-day squad: Paul Best (capt), Zafar Ansari, Adam Ball, Jacob Ball, Alex Barrow, Matthew Dunn, Lewis Gregory, Ateeq Javid, Jack Manuel, David Payne, Joe Root, Adam Rouse, James Thorpe, Luke Wells

Nottinghamshire are back on top of the First Division but felt robbed nonetheless after wet weather came to Yorkshire’s aid and denied them the chance to put clear daylight between themselves and the rest as the race for the County Championship enters its

Jon Culley at Headingley06-Aug-2010
ScorecardNottinghamshire are back on top of the First Division but felt robbed nonetheless after wet weather came to Yorkshire’s aid and denied them the chance to put clear daylight between themselves and the rest as the race for the County Championship enters its decisive phase.Yorkshire were eight down and only 39 runs ahead at tea on the last day, with 34 overs still left in the day’s schedule. But heavy rain meant no further play was possible. With five matches left against Yorkshire’s four, the Trent Bridge side’s five-point advantage makes them favourites, although Somerset – only eight points behind Yorkshire – remain contenders and they might yet pose the greater threat.But Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, did not pretend the comfort of a bigger cushion would have been preferable, particularly with Somerset at home next week while his side sits out a round.Nottinghamshire do have one advantage in that three of their remaining matches are at home, where they have tended to play their best cricket. Bottom of the table Warwickshire are due at Trent Bridge on August 16.By then, Nottinghamshire will hope to have clarified the future of their England fast bowler, Ryan Sidebottom, who has yet to sign a new contract offer. The left-armer’s current deal expires at the end of this season and Sussex are believed to be in the hunt should he leave Nottingham, where he is holding out for a longer deal.Sidebottom indicated this week that he would like “to see out my career with Nottinghamshire” and Newell said that the parties hoped to reach an agreement after Twenty20 finals day.”You could see by the way Ryan bowled in this match that there is no doubt about his commitment when he wears a Nottinghamshire shirt. This will probably be the final contract of Ryan’s career and we feel we have made him a good offer, although there is sticking point over the length of the deal.”Newell said the result at Headingley left the race for the title in the balance. “It is frustrating because we had a chance to open up a 20-point lead, although everyone has at least one game a season in which they feel they were robbed. A lead of five points at this stage is neither here nor there and we need to start winning games.”Yorkshire’s plan had been to bat through the day but it was a risky strategy, given that they did not have the cushion of runs in the bank were Nottinghamshire’s bowling to prove more effective than it had been on day three.They resumed still 95 in arrears and, while eight wickets in hand gave them a degree of security, under cloud cover and with rain in the air there was always the danger that a couple of good balls early on could give fresh impetus to the visitors.Yet Yorkshire showed no inclination to hurry, mindful perhaps that the weather might come to their aid in accounting at least for a few overs. Steve Patterson, the nightwatchman, had a job to do and applied himself diligently, but Anthony McGrath lasted only five overs before playing back to a ball from Darren Pattinson that deviated late enough to catch the edge of his defensive bat and fly into the gloves of Chris Read behind the stumps. It left McGrath still 20 short of joining Adam Lyth and Jacques Rudolph in completing 1,000 first-class runs for the season.Incoming batsman Andrew Gale continued Yorkshire’s defensive plan. An hour and 35 minutes passed before there was a four scored off the bat – the one previous boundary was in leg-byes -and it was Patterson who claimed it, steering a ball from Ryan Sidebottom through the gully area.But the possibility of the plan backfiring began to gather strength just before lunch as Gale, seeking to meet a delivery from Sidebottom with a firm push, somehow hit himself on the foot with his bat and the ball ended up in the hands of the bowler. Sidebottom appealed and the umpire’s raised finger confirmed that the ball had come off Gale’s bat and the Yorkshire captain departed, limping.The morning session had produced only 53 runs in 30 overs, with just that one boundary, but the statistic of more concern was that Yorkshire, while only four down, were still 42 short of requiring Nottinghamshire to bat again, let alone have something of substance to chase.It had been a good effort by Patterson, but his vigilance was exhausted 10 minutes after lunch when Mark Wagh snapped up a bat-pad catch at silly mid-off as the nightwatchman tried to work left-arm spinner Samit Patel into the leg side, and when Jonathan Bairstow drove down the wrong line to Sidebottom, alarm bells began to ring for the home side.Six down and still 31 behind, the potential for embarrassment was now very real and it was perverse, in a way, after what had gone before, that Bairstow’s departure prefaced a stand between Adil Rashid and Gerard Brophy that, by comparison, was positively expansive.Rashid’s instincts are clearly curbed less easily. The stroke-playing leg-spinner picked up five boundaries – off Andre Adams, Patel and Paul Franks – from some meaty drives through the off side, which at least put Yorkshire in front.But when Sidebottom had Brophy caught behind after tempting the wicketkeeper to drive a ball just short of a length, and then had Shahzad caught by Adams at gully, Yorkshire were 406 for 8 and facing the prospect of trying to survive a minimum of 34 overs in the final session – probably more – with a lead of only 39.Happily for them – frustratingly for Nottinghamshire – rain was already falling as they left the field and continued long enough to make mopping up time to resume impossible.

A neck injury has ruled out key allrounder Jacques Kallis from the rest of the Champions League Twenty20

Cricinfo staff21-Sep-2010Royal Challengers Bangalore have been dealt a huge blow ahead of their must-win game against Lions after a neck injury ruled out key allrounder Jacques Kallis from the rest of the Champions League Twenty20.According to the team’s website, the injury has affected Kallis’ lower cervical and upper thoracic spine and Cricket South Africa’s medical team advised him to rest so he would be fit for the country’s upcoming international commitments. ESPNcricinfo has learnt the injury is not serious – it is just a strain, not a tear or fracture. Kallis will most likely not be named in the T20 squad to face Pakistan, but should be fit for the one-dayers.Kallis was the Man of the Match in Bangalore’s opening win over Guyana, taking 3 for 16 and scoring an unbeaten 43. He was second highest run scorer in the 2010 IPL, making 572 runs at an average of 47.66 and a strike rate of 115.78.The franchise said it would not be asking for a replacement.

Namibia completed a crushing ten-wicket victory over Uganda on the final day in Windhoek, despite Roger Mukasa’s maiden first-class hundred

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Sep-2010
ScorecardNamibia completed a crushing ten-wicket victory over Uganda on the final day in Windhoek, despite Roger Mukasa’s maiden first-class hundred, to set up a final with United Arab Emirates in the ICC Intercontinental Shield.The pressure of batting out the final day proved to be too much for Uganda, who started the day on 77 for 2. They lost Hamza Saleh off the first ball of the day, leg before to Kola Burger, and Benjamin Musoke didn’t last long either. However, Mukasa and Lawrence Sematimba added 117 runs in 200 deliveries to raise Ugandan hopes of a draw.Burger eventually trapped Mukasa leg before for a patient 121 – it came off 240 balls – and four runs later Sematimba was bowled by Craig Williams for 54. That effectively ended Uganda’s chances of saving the game, though Frank Nsubuga and Emmanuel Isaneez resisted the inevitable for a further 17.1 overs before Louis Klazinga finished off the tail with a three-wicket burst. Six batsmen fell leg before as Uganda were dismissed for 295.Namibia knocked off the target of 16 without any fuss to top the table with 46 points from three matches. The final will be played in the UAE from November 25-28.

South Africa’s AB de Villiers has won the ODI Player of the Year award at the ICC Awards in Bengaluru. De Villiers beat off tough competition from India’s Sachin Tendulkar and the Australia duo of Shane Watson and Ryan Harris to take the prestigious award

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Oct-2010South Africa’s AB de Villiers has won the ODI Player of the Year award at the ICC Awards in Bengaluru. De Villiers beat off tough competition from India’s Sachin Tendulkar and the Australia duo of Shane Watson and Ryan Harris to take the prestigious award.During the voting period, de Villiers helped his side to ten victories in 16 ODIs, scoring 855 runs at an average of 71.25 and at a rate of 103.38 runs per 100 balls faced. In that time he hit four fifties and four centuries, and also picked up five dismissals in the four matches in which he played as wicketkeeper. He is currently the No.1-ranked ODI player in the world, comfortably ahead of the next best.On receiving his first-ever ICC award de Villiers said: “I’ve really enjoyed this season and it’s great to have been named the ODI Cricketer of the Year. It’s a World Cup season and a World Cup is something we would love to win and we rate our chances pretty highly”.De Villiers also features in the ODI Team of the Year and is the only South African in the side selected by the expert five-man panel.The panel was chaired by West Indies legend Clive Lloyd and included former Australia batsman Matthew Hayden, former England bowler Angus Fraser, former Zimbabwe player and England coach Duncan Fletcher and former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri.

Abdul Razzaq broke South Africa’s ten-match winning streak with an onslaught that even in the era of Twenty20 stood out for its brutality

The Bulletin by Osman Samiuddin31-Oct-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Abdul Razzaq made an outrageous game-stealing 109•AFP

There are match-winning centuries and there are Match-winning Centuries. You will travel far and wide, maybe even go back in time, but you will struggle to find a more remarkable game-stealing hundred than the one the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi saw tonight. An outrageous 72-ball 109 from Abdul Razzaq dragged Pakistan to a series-levelling target of 287 against South Africa, one ball and one wicket left.It was scarcely-scriptable and only when Razzaq hit his tenth six in the last over, slogging Albie Morkel over midwicket to climax an unimaginable orgy of power-hitting, was a Pakistan win even worth contemplating; until then he had played to a backdrop of impending, imminent doom. To even get to that point needing 14 was a feat because for 99 overs Pakistan looked a distant second best; a solid, now-to-be-forgotten century from Colin Ingram, hands from Hashim Amla and JP Duminy and the continuing refusal of Pakistan’s top order to turn up, the distinct story till then.Shahid Afridi and Fawad Alam had tried gamely to make something of the disaster of 70 for 4 in the 19th over. The spinners were on, Afridi was around so inevitably some fun was had. When Afridi went in the 30th, the score at 136, still the best they could hope for was an honourable scrap.Razzaq began quietly, expressive as a stone, and even a dance-down six off Robin Peterson four overs after Afridi left felt decorative. Alam, meanwhile, was getting bogged down by his own inability to clear a field. But South Africa relaxed, the pair stuck at it. Alam suddenly got going and Razzaq smoked a couple more sixes. By the 40th over, at 200 for 5, theoretically it looked possible – in this age of Twenty20 at least – even if, in reality, it didn’t feel gettable.But for once, Pakistan timed their Powerplay right and when Johan Botha was taken for 11 in the very first, a little tension crept in. Only a little though, for Alam went soon, Morne Morkel bowled two fine overs, there was the inevitable run-out and even though Razzaq had reached his fifty, it was done and dusted.The 47th over, bowled poorly by Charles Langeveldt, was pivotal. Razzaq launched a sequence of length balls for three sixes in his favourite areas – flat-batted over extra cover, high over long-on and down the ground. Eighteen runs but no expression. Wahab Riaz’s run-out off the last ball was merely collateral damage as 53 from 24 became 33 from 18.Razzaq had decided at the fall of Alam that if the match was to be won, it would be by him alone, so with the tail in, several singles were turned down. With 25 needed from 12, Langeveldt was lofted down the ground and then pulled with cartoonish violence to midwicket. By the time Razzaq had taken the 14 needed off the last over he had scored 63 of the last 65, effectively from the 45th over onwards. Six sixes came in the last four overs, and only at the very end, after crashing a drive through point, did he let his emotions out, dropping his bat and trying to run but not knowing where to go.That put to shade all that went before it. South Africa’s real work had been done with the bat and Ingram’s second ODI century was a real old-school effort. The start was edgy, even if it contained a classy punch through midwicket. But once he jumped down the track and lofted Razzaq down the ground, nerves were shed.

Smart Stats

• Abdul Razzaq’s ten sixes in the innings moved him into joint third position among batsmen to hit the most sixes in an ODI innings behind Xavier Marshall (12), and Sanath Jayasuriya and Shahid Afridi (both 11).

• Razzaq finished with a strike rate of 151.38, which is the second-highest among 100-plus scores in ODIs against South Africa, next only to Ricky Ponting’s 164 off 105 balls in Johannesburg in 2006 (strike rate 156.19).

• The 12 sixes in Pakistan’s innings were the second highest number in an innings while chasing.

• This was the fifth occasion that Pakistan have won a match by one wicket. All five wins have come against a different opposition.

• This was the fourth highest total chased successfully against South Africa in ODIs and the tenth highest by Pakistan

• This was Razzaq’s first 50-plus ODI score in more than four years, and his first century since September 2004.

Thereafter, singles and doubles rolled by and so incongruously did he go about it that his fifty, at the halfway mark, was actually a surprise. He never fully got hold of the spinners but neither did they really trouble him and a pattern emerged. There was a missed stumping, but a ball previous, he had driven solidly through covers. Five times an edge was drawn and each time a boundary was the result. He might even have been run out on 73, but so settled was he that a century never looked in serious doubt. Every time the spinners erred, he took advantage, cutting and pulling efficiently. The running was the highlight, aggressive throughout.But it was Amla who had set the tone and allowed Ingram such comfort. His ODI batting has been a revelation since his late debut in 2008; he now has nine fifties and five hundreds in just 34 games. At a 90-plus strike rate, they don’t come slowly either. But most revelatory is the persistent quality of his stokeplay, unique and utterly compelling. So quick are the hands and wrists that the feet don’t need to move.He began with a burst of boundaries, four in the first two overs, rotating his bat like a wand for flicks and cuts through point. More cuts, whips and a rare drive through the off kept coming so that even when singles dried up, the runs didn’t. A fifty, off just 47 balls, was merely statistical embellishment to a wondrous hour of batting, especially on a surface slow enough to hamper timing. He is not the modern macho ODI opener, and it cannot be disputed the format needs such flair over brutality and function.Across the desert in Dubai, as Botha was winning the toss, Mohammad Amir’s suspension was not being lifted and how his absence was felt by Pakistan. In turn, they were awful, complacent, solid and special. Shoaib Akhtar and Razzaq are a different proposition altogether than Amir and Mohammad Asif, as their opening spells – short, wide and inconsistent – proved.There came brief spells of tight work, from the spinners, but never prolonged. The best they saved for last and it came from the impressive Wahab Riaz. Just when South Africa were looking to explode in the batting Powerplay, yorkers, short balls and cutters ensured only 25 runs came, Riaz picking up two of the three wickets to fall.It felt a relative victory then, a twinkling cameo from Duminy highlighting its hollowness. A potential target of 300-plus became 287; Pakistan’s best chase against these opponents was 223 and they had only chased down 250-plus twice in the last two years. And they certainly hadn’t chased them down like they finally did here.

The fourth season of the IPL is set to go ahead with 10 teams and 74 matches as originally planned, according to sources

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Dec-2010The fourth season of the IPL is set to go ahead with 10 teams and 74 matches as originally planned. ESPNcricinfo has learnt the BCCI is not likely to move the Supreme Court after it lost High Court appeals against the stay orders granted to the termination of Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals. The decision also means that the player auction should go ahead as previously scheduled on January 8 and 9.The news comes in three days after a division bench of the Bombay High Court dismissed the BCCI’s appeal against the court’s interim order staying the termination of the Punjab franchise. It is learnt that the BCCI didn’t want to make an “ego issue” out of the dispute by prolonging the legal fight against what the court called an “erroneous and flawed” decision to terminate the franchise.The BCCI’s acceptance of the court’s verdict seems to have ended an air of uncertainty around the player auction, and the tournament itself.In October the BCCI had expelled Punjab and Rajasthan, holding the franchises guilty for violating the franchise agreement on three counts, including changes of ownership that went unreported to the board. With the Kochi franchise also mired in an ownership wrangle, it had seemed then that the 2011 IPL would not have even eight teams, the number of teams that participated in the first three seasons. The dispute between Kochi’s owners, however, was settled and the franchise was cleared for the IPL earlier this month.The 2011 season will begin five days after the World Cup, which ends on April 2. The IPL’s governing council had originally announced the format for the season in September, and had also set down rules for player retention.

Ajmal Shahzad is hopeful the England selectors will stick with him for the World Cup after he waited patiently for his chance on the tour of Australia

Andrew McGlashan17-Jan-2011Ajmal Shahzad is hopeful the England selectors will stick with him for the World Cup after he waited patiently for his chance on the tour of Australia. Shahzad didn’t feature during the Ashes after being added to the squad, but played both Twenty20 internationals and the first ODI at the MCG.Shahzad wasn’t originally part of the Test party although flew out with them at the end of October to help with the preparations and impressed the management enough to stay on the trip. Against Australia A at Hobart he took 3 for 57 to help England to a 10-wicket victory and he even had an outside chance of playing in Adelaide, but Steven Finn’s form meant he wasn’t able to add to his one Test cap against Bangladesh.Now Shahzad is waiting to find out whether he’ll make the cut for the World Cup, having made an encouraging start to his one-day career with nine wickets at 22.44 from five matches. He produced a solid display in the first ODI, which Australia won by six wickets, taking 1 for 51 while England’s other frontline quicks, Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan, were very expensive as Shane Watson hit a brilliant 161.”Personally I thought I did OK,” Shahzad said. “I wish I could have changed it a little bit more our way and got a few wickets in the middle period. I was happy with my all-round performance. I don’t know what they are going to do in regards to the World Cup squad. I’d love to be in there and keep learning and keep progressing. Hopefully I can give the coaches and selectors other options. I guess we’ll see in the next couple of days.”With James Anderson and Stuart Broad due to return to the set-up after being rested and injured respectively, they will form the first-choice pace attack alongside Tim Bresnan which will be followed by the spin of Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy. It means Shahzad will fill a back-up role, but having been on tour for nearly three months he’s used to biding his time although he admitted endless nets can become hard work.”Personally, I’ve learned a lot from it,” he said. “I’ve been sat out of the Ashes and not played, but I have observed and learned a lot from it which was the key thing for me. Hopefully I can learn and give some impetus into the ODIs now.”There’s only so much you can do in the nets,” he added. “It’s been frustrating and difficult just to bowl at batsmen in the nets. After the Hobart game [against Australia A] I felt I was a little bit rusty and there was a few things I wanted to work on. I feel as though I’m getting into a better rhythm now in regards to everything.”Andy Flower, the England team director, also likes cricketers who can contribute in all three formats and Shahzad believes he can fit that mould. “I give a lot of energy in the field. I’ve been working hard on my fielding and my all-round game. I haven’t been paying the Test matches.”With regards to the ball I can control the reverse swing in the sub-continent, that will be a key factor for us. Just keeping it tight and bowling at the death. I think I’ve shown what I can do opening the bowling and coming on at the end. Then also coming in late on and hitting a few balls out of the ground. My batting, my bowling and my fielding. I feel like I belong on the pitch now. Hopefully I can get a decent run and show what I have got to offer.”