Players will be hungry to play and we have to utilise that energy: Misbah

Pakistan players will be eager to get back to cricket after the long break enforced by the coronavirus pandemic and this is something that can work for them during their scheduled tour of England in August-September, the team's head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq said on Friday.

The tour, which consists of three Tests and three T20Is, is part of the revamped summer season for England and they will be facing West Indies in three Tests before that. Misbah admitted that England will be at an advantage as they would have already played a series with the temporary rules formulated by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the resumption of cricket amid the pandemic.

"This is an away series so anyhow it will be difficult. Whether it be in England, South Africa or Australia, the home team always has an advantage. Especially considering the fact that they have played a series before us," said Misbah in an online press conference while announcing the 29-man squad for the tour.

"That is why the one month that we get over there before the series, we have to use it very professionally. Here at home we have had no time to do any preparations, the players are not able to do any sort of practice related to the game.

"But one good thing is that the players will be eager to play. They have not played for many months and in this situation players will be raring to go. So mentally they will be very focused as opposed what might otherwise be the case when the players are fatigued out of playing too much cricket.

"The hunger will be there in the players and then we will get the time to train there. All of this we will need to utilise. So there are disadvantages and advantages at the same time. We just have to capitalise on these advantages."

Misbah said that the team will be following the West Indies series. "We will be keeping an eye on the West Indies series. There will be a lot of takeaways from how the players play in that series and we will try to apply those in our camp. We won't have any opposition to practice against but there will be practice matches among ourselves," said Misbah.