Before he became an ousted prime minister, an incumbent prime minister, or an aspiring prime minister, before he captained Pakistan's national cricket team or cemented his legacy as one of the greatest all-rounders, Imran Khan spent a brief period as a distinctly "English" kind of bowler. The type known for measured effort, fast-medium pace, a hint of seam, a touch of swing—one who relished overcast conditions. It was a style he honed at the age of 18 at RGS Worcester, then perfected during four years of grueling six-day-a-week county cricket with Worcestershire. There, a senior pro once told him he should stop kidding himself about being genuinely fast if he wanted to make it in the game.
Being Imran Khan, of course, he excelled at it. In 1973, he took 68 wickets at an average of 26, followed by 60 at 30 in 1974, and 46 at 27 in 1975. But when he returned to Pakistan, Khan quickly realized that most of what he'd spent years mastering was of little use on the slow, low, flat pitches of his homeland. Reflecting on that period, Khan wrote, "That trip to Pakistan made up my mind. From then on, I would be a fast bowler or nothing." As Osman Samiuddin later observed in *The Unquiet Ones*, Khan learned that "the way of the English was no way at all" in Pakistan.
There’s a reason why Pakistan has been home to so many cricketing innovations—reverse swing, the doosra, wobble-seam bowling—and why their cricket consistently produces electric fast bowlers, cunning spinners, and inventive seamers. The primary reason? Their pitches demand it.
England, these days, boast a few electric fast bowlers of their own. The problem is, one of them—Mark Wood—is just starting to recover from injury, while the other, Jofra Archer, is just finishing his. They also have a formidable spinner in Adil Rashid, but he's long since stepped away from Test cricket, to the point where, while England toiled in Multan, Rashid was (no joke) participating in an Instagram livestream to promote his hair replacement therapy. And then there’s the crafty seamer, Jimmy Anderson, who was wrapping up a golf pro-am before flying over for some coaching, having essentially been nudged into retirement.
Enter Chris Woakes, flanked by Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse, all ready to face the same harsh lessons Khan and countless other English-style bowlers have learned in the subcontinent over the years. Between them, they had just 20 overseas Tests before this match, only five of those in the subcontinent, and none in Pakistan—all those matches belonging to Woakes. Woakes’ record at home is stellar, as he admits himself, but until last year, it seemed as though England had abandoned the idea of ever picking him for overseas tours again.
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