Pakistan to face Essex Eagles in T20 at Chelmsford

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Pakistan to face Essex Eagles in T20 at Chelmsford

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02 July,2010 12:54 pm

Exciting cricket is in offing when Essex Eagles take on Pakistan in a Twenty20 challenge at Ford County Ground, Chelmsford, on Friday (today) evening. This would be the third match for the tourists who won their opening T20 match against MCC last Sunday but drew the three-day match against Kent at Canterbury. The tourists were Twenty20 World Cup winners in 2009 and the match against the Eagles is their penultimate warm-up game before they take on Australia in two Twenty20 internationals and two Test matches.Paul Grayson, Essex Cricket First XI Head Coach, will name his starting XI after the entire first team squad have had a practice session early tomorrow afternoon ahead of the game.After their involvement against Australia, Pakistan continue their tour with four Test matches against England before they conclude with two further T20 matches and five limited overs internationals.Essex leg-spinner Danish Kaneria is in the Pakistan Test squad but has not been included in their one-day party.Having been defeated by South Division group leaders Sussex on Tuesday in a Friends Provident T20 match, Grayson is delighted that his side have the opportunity to face the touring side.We will be putting out a strong team to make sure we get in a big performance and try and get our confidence back for Sundays game with Hampshire, he said. He said the match with Pakistan gives them an immediate chance to address one or two of the problems that they had in the match with Sussex.But obviously, Pakistan are a very talented side and will provide a tough challenge for us.The visitors will select their squad from the following players:Shahid Afridi, (Captain),Salman Butt, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Kamran Akmal, Umer Akmal,Fawad Alam, Umer Amin, Muhammad Aamer,Umer Gul, Shahzaib Hasan,Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Abdul Rehman ,Wahab Riaz.