The First Test: Pakistan v England, Day Three

Facing a 100+ run deficit, a good spinner and the history of England in the subcontinent, will England show fight and pull off a Brisbane 2010, or will they reassure us that the England we grew up watching from behind a cushion, probably weeping whenever the grainy statistics came up with the words "slow" in the bowling action column, is still in there, somewhere?

Here's what happened on a quite eventful day 3 from Dubai way back in mid January.

The First Test: Pakistan v England, Day Two

About a month late (so I'm going to pretend that it was published in January), here's the second day of the first Test v Pakistan. I had a laptop malfunction, but a new hard drive and a lot less money later, here's some ducks playing cricket. If you don't know what happened, you've been living in a cave for the past month.

A very disappointing day for England on day one, as their batting capitulation had put Pakistan in a relatively strong position at the beginning of day two. Could England's bowlers pull it back?

Here's day two from Dubai.

The First Test: Pakistan v England, Day One

They've been gathering dust on a book shelf ever since they were put away back in October, but England are back, so guess what? The ducks are back too. Welcome to my desk Dubai, for England's first Test of 2012, and first test of their number one status, against a rejuvenated Pakistan side.

Despite early chatter about England breaking character and going with five bowlers, England went with the usual four. Despite concerns over Broad and Bell being injured by their own compatriots, Tremlett came in for the injured Bresnan. Had Bresnan not been injured, perhaps they would've gone with the five, but you can't ponder too much on injuries.

Here's what happened on day one from the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.