The players of the Pakistan cricket team would be eager to get back to the field after the long break enforced by the coronavirus pandemic. Team’s head coach cum chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq feels that this could very well work for them during their upcoming tour to England in August-September.

The tour consists of three Tests and three T20Is. Misbah admitted that the hosts would be in a better position than Pakistan since they would have already experienced playing under the new guidelines of the ICC which would be enforced owing to the worldwide health concerns.

“This is an away series so anyhow it will be difficult. Whether it be in England, South Africa or Australia, the home team always has an advantage. Especially considering the fact that they have played a series before us,” said Misbah in an online press conference while announcing the 29-man squad for the tour.

“That is why the one month that we get over there before the series, we have to use it very professionally. Here at home we have had no time to do any preparations, the players are not able to do any sort of practice related to the game.

“But one good thing is that the players will be eager to play. They have not played for many months and in this situation players will be raring to go. So mentally they will be very focused as opposed what might otherwise be the case when the players are fatigued out of playing too much cricket.

“The hunger will be there in the players and then we will get the time to train there. All of this we will need to utilise. So there are disadvantages and advantages at the same time. We just have to capitalise on these advantages.”

Misbah added that the team would be keeping a close eye on the West Indies series-a bilateral cricket competition which marks the resumption of the sport.

“We will be keeping an eye on the West Indies series. There will be a lot of takeaways from how the players play in that series and we will try to apply those in our camp. We won’t have any opposition to practice against but there will be practice matches among ourselves,” said Misbah.