James Anderson has backed Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum's aggressive approach ahead of England's first Test against Pakistan, but acknowledges they are in the dark over what to expect on the pitch.
The tourists kick off a three-match series in Rawalpindi on December 1, marking their first return to the country for red-ball cricket since 2005.
England had not toured Pakistan in the wake of the Sri Lanka bus attack in 2009 until September this year, when they returned to the nation for a seven-game T20 series ahead of the World Cup.
But having won six out of seven Tests on home turf under an all-guns-blazing approach from captain Stokes and coach McCullum, Anderson is ready to maintain the momentum on their trip overseas.
"We've got a captain and coach that don't want draws," the 40-year-old told BBC Sport. "We're not playing for draws.
"We don't know how it's going to play. Traditionally it is flat. We'll come out and try to win the game - we might have to be creative in how we do that."
Though a member of the party for England's last Test tour of Pakistan in 2005, Anderson did not feature, but he did play in a string of ODI matches.
That means the veteran red-ball specialist is in the dark on what to expect from his wicket, although he says he is still delighted to finally get the chance to play the longer format there.
"It's great to be back," he said. "Seventeen years is a long time. It would be wrong if I said, 'The pitch is going to play like this', or, 'This is what to expect'.
"There will be times when we have to soak up pressure. We get that.
"But there will be times when we have to put pressure back on the opposition and the skill we're trying to develop is when to do that.
"With the ball we're trying to take wickets. The captain and coach have made that quite clear - every time you run in to bowl it's about taking wickets - not about controlling the run-rate. It's about how we're going to get 20 wickets."
Lancashire slip to first defeat of Blast season against Birmingham
Lancashire suffered their first defeat of this season’s Vitality Blast as they slumped to a seven-wicket loss at Birmingham Bears on Monday.
The Lightning lost their last seven wickets for 36 runs in 35 balls as they were bowled out for just 98 at Edgbaston.
Spinners Danny Briggs and Dan Mousley did most of the damage, taking four for 15 and three for 13 respectively.
The Bears then eased to victory, maintaining their own 100 per cent record in the competition, with captain Alex Davies, formerly of Lancashire, hitting an unbeaten 51 from 39 balls.
Worcestershire claimed their third win from three outings as they saw off Leicestershire by 33 runs at New Road.
Kashif Ali top-scored with 69 – his maiden half-century in the Blast – as the Rapids posted 183 for seven from their 20 overs.
Leicestershire reached 70 for one in reply but then fell away as Brett D’Oliveira, Michael Bracewell and Usama Mir all took two wickets apiece and Pat Brown (three for 25) cut through the tail.
Northamptonshire claimed their first win as they beat Derbyshire by six wickets with 12 balls to spare at Derby.
Saif Zaib led them home with 37 not out from 32 balls while captain David Willey and Chris Lynn added 31 as the Steelbacks eased to their 152-run target.
Wayne Madsen had top-scored for Derbyshire with 57 and wicketkeeper Brooke Guest weighed in with 49.
Gloucestershire held on for a nail-biting two-run win over Middlesex in a high-scoring contest at Northwood.
Miles Hammond hit 59 from 42 balls and Grant Roelofsen 34 from 19 as Gloucestershire ran up 181 for nine from their 20 overs.
Stephen Eskinazi (59) and Joe Cracknell (42) got Middlesex off to a strong start in reply before Luke Hollman (39) and Ryan Higgins (24) took up the chase.
Seven runs were needed off the final over but Matt Taylor conceded just four with Higgins run out off the last ball.
James Anderson and Ollie Robinson should be fit for Ashes – Brendon McCullum
England head coach Brendon McCullum is confident James Anderson and Ollie Robinson will be fit for the first Ashes Test but has confirmed they will play no part against Ireland this week.
The five-match series against Australia begins on June 16 but England have fitness concerns over a number of their bowlers.
Robinson suffered an ankle issue for Sussex earlier this month and Anderson strained his groin while on Lancashire duty while injury-hit pair Jofra Archer and Olly Stone have experienced elbow and hamstring problems respectively already this summer.
England begin their eagerly anticipated summer with a four-day Test against Ireland at Lord’s on Thursday and while two of their key bowlers will miss out, they should be fine for the Ashes opener at Edgbaston.
“Yeah we’ve got a couple of niggles so we’re just monitoring those at the moment. I guess every team that goes into a series has got a couple of little things that you need to work through, but pretty confident we’ll have a good squad to be able to pick from,” McCullum insisted.
On Robinson and Anderson, he added: “For the first Ashes Test, I think they should be fit.
“They won’t be fit for this one against Ireland. We’ll just have to monitor it over this next sort of while, but we’ve got some great options right throughout the squad.
“When I first took over this job, people said there wasn’t much depth in English cricket and I disagree with that completely.
“I think there is an immense amount of depth and we’ve got plenty of good options throughout the squad.”
Has ‘Bazball’ taken hold in county cricket? What the numbers tell us
The men at the forefront of England’s red-ball revolution – Ben Stokes, Brendon McCullum and Rob Key – have made it clear they would like to see their dynamic approach to the game replicated across the county network.
Players from within the England dressing room have been invited to spread the word while back with their clubs and a get-together of first-class coaches and directors of cricket earlier this year saw Zoom presentations from Stokes and McCullum advocating their new methods.
‘Bazball’ was the talk of the shires in the build-up to the 2023 season, but what do the numbers tell us about its impact on the LV= County Championship ahead of the first Test of the summer?
Run-ratesIt was perhaps ambitious to expect the first phase of the county season to hit the heights of England’s most frenzied scoring, particularly with soft early-season pitches and a lively Dukes ball for 2023. Stokes’ England reached a crescendo in Pakistan, when they scored at 5.50 runs per over – the highest ever in a series of three or more Tests – but unsurprisingly that bar has proved tough to meet.
Division Two pace-setters Durham lead the way, scoring their 3,357 runs at a lively 4.20, but the only other side to go at more than four an over, Yorkshire, have had a very different experience. They are tracking at 4.09 but have scored only 2,229 runs in total and are winless in eighth place in the second tier.
Another eight teams are scoring at more that 3.50 an over, while Division One’s bottom club Northamptonshire are outliers having made their runs at a relatively pedestrian 2.82.
Individual performersStokes has repeatedly said where runs are concerned he is just as interested in ‘how?’ as ‘how many?’, challenging Test hopefuls to catch the eye with dashing displays. Durham wicketkeeper Ollie Robinson has done more than anyone else to live up to that billing, scoring 465 runs from 527 balls for a strike rate of 88.23 runs per 100 balls.
In the top flight two players already inked into the Test XI have carried the torch, Ben Duckett scoring 401 runs with a strike rate of 74.39 while Stokes’ new vice-captain Ollie Pope has 379 and 74.16. Unlike them, Somerset’s Tom Kohler-Cadmore has yet to clear the 500-ball mark for the season but his combination of 348 runs at 80.55 marks him out for attention.
Dan Lawrence, called up as batting cover for the Ireland Test, is some way behind on a strike rate of 57.26, while Lancashire’s Josh Bohannon has 471 runs at 67.96. Dom Sibley, once a fixture at the top of England’s Test line-up, looks a long way back with his strike rate of 43.71 placing him close to the bottom of the ladder.
Win, lose or drawA feature of England’s Test cricket over the past 12 months has been their stated aversion to draws. With an eye on entertainment and a belief that pushing hard for victory is worth the price of defeat, the McCullum era has effectively removed the idea of sharing the spoils.
While a few counties suggested they were willing to engage with the same philosophy, it has proved harder than expected. Heavy rain has wreaked havoc with fixtures, with some teams worse affected than others, while extending the number of runs required for bonus points has also made forcing results more taxing inside four days.
So far 25 games have been drawn out of 52 (11 in Division One, 14 in Division Two), with five from five for a well-fancied Lancashire side. Table-toppers Surrey and Durham are both rewarded for getting over the line four times in six attempts.
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