England coach rues poor catching ahead of first Pakistan Test

KARACHI: England are concerned about their catching going into the opening Test against Pakistan which gets underway in Abu Dhabi from October 13.
The tourists dropped several catches during their tour opener against Pakistan A in Sharjah forcing Paul Farbrace, England’s assistant coach, to say that his players will have to work hard on that specific area of the game.
Farbrace warned his players not to squander the chances that come their way in what could be an attritional three-Test series.
Pakistan A closed the second and final day of the warm-up match on 216 for 5 on Tuesday, but England were made to toil during a wicketless afternoon session in which Iftikhar Ahmed (92 not out) and Fawad Alam (55) added 112 in a 44-over partnership.
However, their resistance was aided when Cook dropped a sharp chance in the slips off Stuart Broad when Iftikhar had made just 11. Moeen also missed a caught-and-bowled off Fawad, before late in the day, Adnan Akmal edged through the gap between Jos Buttler, the keeper, and Cook at first slip.
“The application with the ball was outstanding,” Farbrace said. “The one thing we’ve just had a quick chat about is that, to win a Test match, you’ve got to take 20 chances - and we’ve missed a couple of chances [here].
“That’s something we’ll have to work very hard on, and something we prided ourselves on in the Ashes series.”
“We’re coming here knowing it’s going to be a very, very tough series,” he said.
“I said at the end of the Australian series I expected this to be a tougher series for us to play in. We knew it was going to be tough, very different obviously from conditions we’ve just played in the Ashes.
“We’ve still got a good few days to go, so there’ll be plenty of catching done over the next few days. But generally, I think we had a really good two days. We saw how players adapted quite quickly to the situation and conditions.
England’s senior players in particular know what is at stake in the coming weeks. Cook, Broad, Ian Bell and James Anderson all played on the last England tour to the UAE in 2012, in which they were beaten 3-0 in spite of having opportunities to dominate in the second and third Tests.
“We’ve got senior players who’ve been here and experienced it, and I think there was a feeling that - although they lost the last Test series here 3-0 - it was one they could quite easily have won,” Farbrace said. “They didn’t, that’s history, it’s gone now.
“But I think we’ve got a great chance with this group to play some really good cricket, and we’re looking to be as positive as we possibly can be.”
England’s line-up for the first Test appeared to become a touch clearer after the first warm-up, with Moeen opening the batting alongside Cook and Rashid’s legspin getting a useful airing as well. “Mo’s had first go in this practice game, and we were very pleased with the way he applied himself,” Farbrace said.