Old Trafford Manchester pitch report: With an aim to get back to winning ways, England take on the Proteas in the 2nd Test match tomorrow.
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After suffering a humbling innings defeat against South Africa in the first Test match at Lord’s, England are all set to get back to their winning ways, with the second of the three-match Test series scheduled to commence from tomorrow onwards at the Emirates Old Trafford, in Manchester.
Having lost his maiden Test match ever since his appointment as England’s Test skipper, the margin of defeat would have perhaps pinched Ben Stokes a bit harder, especially after South Afican skipper Dean Elgar seemed to almost rubbish their most-talked about ‘Bazball’ approach ahead of the Lord’s Test, while even challenging the same against their pace-attack.
As things turned out, the Proteas pacers managed to scalp 18 of the 20 English wickets, to decimate the hosts by an innings margin.
As has been their custom off-late in the format, England have named their Playing XI for the second Test, with all-rounder Ollie Robinson replacing pacer Matthew Potts from the Lord’s Test.
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Old Trafford Manchester pitch report
The Emirates Old Trafford is set to host its first Test match since August 2020, after the hosts defeated Pakistan by 3 wickets during the first of the three-match Test series.
England boast of a good record against the Proteas at this venue, having lost just one out of the nine Test matches here, and with four wins and as many draws.
The past few Test matches at the Old Trafford have been high scoring ones, and a fresh pitch after a two-year-gap is likely to act no different.
Team batting first will likely target a score at least in the vicinity of the 350-run mark. On the flip side, the pacers are likely to extract significant purchase majorly on the first Day’s play, on what overall will be a track which will assist the batters.
The spinners too, are likely to come into the game as the match progresses, with the pitch at this venue developing the tendency to break and thus slow down a tad.
Chasing teams have won just one of the last eight matches in Manchester. Thus, it would be interesting to see whether England do opt to chase if they win the Toss tomorrow.
