They are stronger in one particular respect: they have a veteran at number four who has been shoring up a middle order that was decidedly flaky when England won 3-1 in his absence.
This veteran batsman is the hawk-like Younis Khan, who has been averaging 78 in Tests since then.
Falconry was the pastime of the few inhabitants of the United Arab Emirates before oil was discovered in the 1950s and Dubai was turned from a village up a creek into a mass of six-lane highways and tower blocks; and Younis has the look of a bird of prey, and the ability to feast insatiably on loose bowling as if it were carrion.
Younis has the highest average of any Pakistan batsman ever, the only one to reach as high as 53. This is due in some small part to his last innings, an unbeaten double-century against Bangladesh, and should not be interpreted to mean that he is Pakistan’s finest batsman ever.
But he is up there with Javed Miandad and Mohammed Yousuf, Inzamam ul-Haq and Zaheer Abbas and Hanif Mohammad, which is enough to make him England’s key opponent in the coming series.
Pakistan’s bowling will be roughly equal to England’s. It is their batting which is more questionable, more fragile and inexperienced, and Younis has been the one who has been holding it together.
He has scored more Test centuries than everyone else in the team put together, and they usually aren’t small ones. He has already played nine Tests in the Gulf (Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah), more than anybody else.
He does not ooze serenity at the crease like Inzamam or Yousuf, nor does he have the grace of Zaheer. Younis scraps like Miandad, without prompting the need for UN peace monitors and conflict-resolution experts to be on hand.
Above all Younis, having played abroad so much during his 34 years, is far more accomplished than his teammates against the short ball, which will be one of England’s main weapons, at least when the ball is new.
He can play off the back foot, cut and pull — which will enable him to act as the human shield for Asad Shafiq at number six and Adnan Akmal, the new keeper at number seven, who will be prime targets for England’s pace bowlers.
Younis missed the 2010 tour of England because he had been banned by the Pakistan board for an indefinite period after their tour of Australia earlier in the year.
Being banned by the Pakistan board should not be considered a stigma; more often it is a badge of honour. Younis was accused of ‘infighting’ in Australia, but anyone who cared about his country might have taken exception to the dreamy captaincy of Yousuf, who led Pakistan to defeat in every competitive game.
Rare in Pakistan, Younis is one of those senior players who has been the captain — indeed he led Pakistan to victory in the 2009 World Twenty20 in England — but who doesn’t rock the boat. He is a team man to the extent that he is an excellent slip-catcher, arguably the best Pakistan have had.
In his last Test, even though 34, the hawk flew from slip to gully to take a right-handed catch at maximum stretch off a spinner that was hailed as the catch of the century.
Younis has managed to survive so long by being his own man within the team.
The dynamics of the Pakistan team are traditionally a division between the Punjabi speakers of Lahore (Butt and his two imprisoned bowlers, Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif, are all Punjabis) and the Urdu speakers of Karachi, but with an increasing component of Pushto-speaking Pathans who go their own way.
Younis, the senior batsman, and Umar Gul, the senior pace bowler, are both Pathans from the North-West Frontier Province. They have avoided being dragged into the games within the game, and they have led, if not the renaissance of Pakistan cricket, then its promising revival. Subdue
Younis, and England will do better than 1-0.
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