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ESPNcricinfo staff
December 9, 2011
England's national selector ,Geoff Miller, admitted England will be taking a step into the unknown in January when they travel to UAE to face Pakistan. England have never played at Test match in the Middle East and begin a three-match series on January 17.
Pakistan can call on recent local knowledge having made UAE their second-home after being exiled from playing on home soil following the terrorist attacks of March 2009 when the Sri Lankan team bus was shot at travelling to a Test match in Lahore.
They first played in UAE in 2002 and since their return to the region in 2010 have drawn 0-0 with South Africa before beating Sri Lanka 1-0 in October. England have only appeared in limited-overs matches, most recently drawing a Twenty20 series 1-1 in February 2010.
"It's something different for us," Miller told Sky Sports News. "Pakistan, who are playing very good cricket at the moment, are used to playing in the region," he said. "We'll do our preparation as we always do. We've watched cricket over there and there are a couple of matches before we go into the Test matches but [the players] can adapt, they're good enough to adapt to all conditions and all surfaces."
Under team director Andy Flower and captain Andrew Strauss England's preparation for Test series has been meticulous. They played three first-class matches ahead of the last Ashes series in Australia whereas India had one match before their four-Test series in England earlier this year and none before an earlier tour of South Africa.
"Whatever the opposition you've still got to get used to the pitches and the conditions and that's exactly what we'll do," said Miller, aware that Pakistan are unbeaten in Test series for 2011. "We'll get our house in order," he added. "We need to fly right from the word go."
England will have to carefully consider the make-up of their bowling attack. They have operated with four specialist bowlers in all but one Test - in Chittagong - since the 2009 Ashes series when Andrew Flintoff retired. Monty Panesar has been included in the squad if England require two spinners and Miller is confident there is the strength in depth to consolidate their position as the no. 1 Test side in the world.
"The options are there for the two Andy's to select the side they require. We've got variations in our seam attack for the different kind of bowlers we may need and we've got the variations in the spin as well," said Miller. "We'll wait and see what the surfaces are like. [Flower and Strauss] are pretty good judges of how wickets are going to play so we'll just have to see how the pitches play in the warm up games and select accordingly."
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