Steve Rixon, Pakistan's fielding coach, feels the conditions in
Manchester suit Pakistan's bowling. He believes that the extra bounce
will work in their favour and has also backed Mohammad Amir to come
good.
"This pitch will suit both forms (spinners and pacers) of
our attack," he told the media on Wednesday (July 20). I think our
seamers will do very well here with the extra bounce. They had a role to
play in the last game, but probably didn't start as well as they would
have liked.
"Amir can move on now. And I do congratulate the
Lord's crowd again because they absolutely embraced him. They could have
made life very hard for him, but they were very good. Fair play to
them."
Pakistan won the first Test in four days at Lord's to take a
1-0 lead in the four-match series. Rixon said they are working towards
building a culture in the camp. "What we've got is a group of youngsters
who we are getting up to speed and building a culture," he revealed. "I
wasn't there for the boot camp but it obviously did make a big
difference. It was part of an overall culture change. Now we have to
rebuild that culture and make sure everyone is on the same page."
Rixon
also refused to get carried away after the win. England are going to
bring back James Anderson and Ben Stokes into the mix and Pakistan will
have to cop with a much stronger home side. "Jimmy Anderson is a great
bowler and he'll be a treat in any side," Rixon said. "He and Stokes are
very fine cricketers. They will add to the England attack and overall
composition of the side. We are expecting as hard a game as we'll get in
the series right here.
"Having won at Lord's, the pressure is
probably on us. So we need to get our game in order. If we do that and
win here, then happy days. But if we lose here and the momentum swings
the other way then we have two games in Birmingham and The Oval which
create a lot of pressure for our youngsters. So it's very important we
get it right here."
The second Test will start from Friday at Old Trafford.

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