Back once again, it is the incredible...

Rhyme animal? Not this time, Chuck, no. It's a test match, involving England. I realise that I've been a bit slow on the update this past month or two, but, let's face it, there hasn't been a whole lot happening to make me feel compelled to write. The Super Series turned out to be a fiasco, predictably after the Ashes perhaps, serving only to restore a bit of the Australians' old confidence. Ganguly was sacked, finally. Actually, that whole saga was quite interesting. If his behaviour was anything like what Chappell described in his inadvertently open email, why did the Indians put up with the Prince for so long? Very odd. I digress. Two days to go. England lost their second tour match. Jones and now Vaughan are out injured. The players haven't had a chance to practice on the type of pitch, a low, slow turner, which is bound to be prepared at Multan. Things aren't looking too good.
Well, that depends on which way you look at them. Even the Australians were bored by their team steamrolling everyone (and are probably becoming bored again). There seems to be little danger of the England team following suit. No matter who they come up against, they seem to like to make it into a bit of a contest. This next test could go either way, and that's good.
In the tradition I've established of remaining positive in the face of contrary evidence(and vica versa), I reckon after their disastrous displays in the first two tour games the England batting line will come good when it matters. Strauss won't like the fact that he missed out on a century in his debut Test against Australia, having scored one the first time he faced New Zealand, West Indies and South Africa, so I wouldn't bet against him doing the business at Multan. Old Ooders outbowled everyone, Kaneira and Mushtaq Ahmed included, in county cricket last season. He and the King of Spain will be a deadly spin pairing. As for Collingwood, well, I guess he could score a few runs. Vaughan and Trescothick only averaged in the 30's in county cricket when they started playing for England. There's just something I don't like about Collingwood. He's boring.
Still the best news of all, for me at least, is that I'm going to be able to go around to my Dad's to watch the action on Sky. It'll be a bit different to the balcony in the south of france where I followed England's last Test. Frankly, I wouldn't mind being on the balcony, in the sunshine, listening to TMS, but sharing toast, tea and newspapers with my Dad while he says, once again, that he's never heard of any of the Pakistanis (apart from Inzaman maybe) will be pretty good.