England speedster Chris Woakes believes that England possess everything that they currently require to win the first Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford. However, he admitted that it will be challenging last day’s play on Saturday.
“It’s an exciting Day Four ahead, I suppose. It will be a challenge,” he told Sky Sports as quoted by IANS. “We’ve got to come out and try and knock Pakistan over without them building any sort of partnership. That would be the ideal.
“To chase this total down, I think we’ve got to do it pretty positively. You can’t just bat out there for a long time and not expect to have one with your name on it. We don’t want them to get too much further ahead of us,” he added.
England bowlers staged a dramatic fightback in the final session on Day 3 – after their batsmen were found wanting against determined touring bowlers – to reduce Pakistan to 137/8 at Stumps in their second innings. Woakes returned impressive figures of 2-11.
Coming into bat with a lead of 107 runs, Pakistan would have hoped to pile runs as fast as possible to have a go at the hosts on the final day. But the England bowlers, after a not-so-impressive performance in the first innings, brought the hosts on equal terms with regular wickets, especially in the post-Tea session.
Earlier on the day, England were bundled out for 219 in their response to Pakistan’s 326 in the first innings. The visitors hold a lead of 244 runs ahead of the last day’s play on Saturday.
Analysing their performance with the bat, Woakes said, “When you lose the toss on a surface like this, you’re always going to be a little bit up against it, especially if there is a first-innings deficit. But, at the same time, we’ve given ourselves a chance.”
Speaking later to reporters, the right-arm medium-pacer further said: “You always have belief – it would be stupid if we rock up thinking ‘if we lose three quick wickets we’re done.
“You hear a lot about records and chases but things like that are there to be broken. We’ll definitely look at those other wins, the sort of wins where you’re written off around this stage of the game.
“We’ll draw on those experiences. Of course it’s a challenge but we’ve definitely got the ability to win, we’ve got the players who can do it.”