By Graham Hardcastle
Excitement and pressure. Two buzz words that are quite apt when you look ahead to England’s Test Match summer against Asian arch-rivals India and Pakistan, which starts against the latter at Lord’s a week on Thursday.
Excitement, for a number of reasons. There is a new national selector in post in the form of Ed Smith, and it will be fascinating to see what strategy he looks to employ, while Pakistan are such an exhilarating side to watch. India are currently ranked number one in the world and bring with them superstar batsman Virat Kohli.
Pressure, because England head into this summer trying to repair the damage of a winter to forget when they lost five of seven matches in Australia and New Zealand.
As aforementioned, the first of two Tests against Pakistan starts next week before current and former Yorkshire players Joe Root and Sarfaraz Ahmed bring their teams to Emerald Headingley for the short series decider from Friday June 1.
Smith has taken over his selection role from James Whitaker and announces his first squad this afternoon (Tuesday).
