England begin their first Test tour of Pakistan since 2005 on Thursday in Rawalpindi.
It’s a monumental series after years of England travelling to the UAE to face the ‘hosts’ due to security fears in their own country.
The rivalry between the two countries has seen many of the game’s great moments and this three-game series promises to produce many more.
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Here at The Sportsman we have sat down and devised a list of the most memorable moments of the countries' storied history ranging from the good, the bad and the ugly.
With it being a Test series, we will be limiting the list solely to instances in the red-ball arena. There are honourable mentions to Pakistan’s incredible 1992 World Cup final victory and England’s recent Ben Stokes’ inspired T20 final effort.
England shine in Karachi darkness
Turn back the clock to 2000 and England recorded their greatest achievement in the country with an incredible run chase in pitch-black darkness. Nowadays the umpires would have taken the players off long before Graeme Thorpe hit the winning runs in the dark.
England were chasing 176 in 50 overs, but it was the light which was the pressing problem more so than the run chase itself. Pakistani captain Moin Khan was moaning about the safety of his fielding side, who were struggling to see the ball, but umpire Steven Bucknor stood firm and insisted the game would be finished.
The England dressing room were celebrating with a rendition of tour song ‘Who Let The Dogs Out?’ after securing a memorable 1-0 series victory as the hosts were left deflated.
Captain Gatting blows gasket
England captain Mike Gatting was involved in an unsavoury affair when he clashed with umpire Shakoor Rana in Faisalabad in 1987.
Back in those days Test matches were frequently marred by biased home umpires, with touring sides struggling to get decisions overseas.
With this in mind, Gatting was incensed when Rana stood in the first Test wearing a Pakistan sweater and a number of questionable decisions did little to simmer the situation.
Tempers boiled over in the second Test when Rana accused the skipper of cheating by “waving a hand” to move the field as the bowler was running in.
What followed were scenes which nobody wants on a cricket field with an angry Gatting pointing at Rana as an expletive-laden row ensued.
The next day’s play was duly abandoned and the rest of the tour thrown into doubt, which threatened relations between the two counties.
Rana later doubled down and said “He’s lucky I didn’t beat him”.
Hopefully there will be no repeat of the ugly incident 25 years on.
England crash back down to Earth
When England travelled to Pakistan in 2005, they were fresh off the back of winning The Ashes for the first time in 18 years that summer.
But they were swiftly brought back down to Earth with a bang as they lost 2-0 to Inzamam Ul Haq’s side.
England started the tour well by bowling the hosts out for 274 and scoring 418 in their first innings. But a tough 22-run defeat in the first Test took the wind out of their sails.
They hung on for a draw in the second Test before Mohammad Yousuf’s third Test double hundred condemned the Andrew Flintoff’s visitors to a crushing innings-and-100-run defeat in Lahore.
Yousuf’s a run machine
When Pakistan travelled to England the following summer, the hosts were already sick of the sight of Yousuf at the crease.
England won the four-match series 3-0, but the tour will be remembered for the sheer brilliance of the right-handed maestro.
The classy middle-order batter, who kissed the pitch after each hundred, flayed the English bowlers for three tons; 202 at Lord’s, 192 at Headingley and 128 at the Oval, as he showcased his skills.
It set him up for a record-breaking 2006 as he scored a staggering 1788 runs at an average of 99.33. It was a world record which saw him become the highest ever run scorer in a calendar year, beating Sir Viv Richards’ effort 30 years previously.
Explosion on and off the pitch
Shahid Afridi was never too far away from controversy during his career and England’s last trip 17 years ago was no different.
The scene was once again Faisalabad and Afridi took advantage of a gas explosion outside the venue to tamper with the wicket by turning with his spikes on a length.
Earlier this year, Afridi — who said no-one should tamper with the pitch — explained: “The Test had become quite boring. The pitch had nothing to offer the bowlers. Then a gas cylinder exploded in the stadium. Everyone got distracted. I looked at Shoaib Malik and said, ‘I feel like creating a patch on the pitch’. He replied, ‘Yes, do it, no one is watching.' I did it, and the rest is history.”
Pakistan celebrate with press ups
In 2016, Pakistan secured a historic victory at Lord’s, their first at the famous ground since 1996.
Captain Misbah Ul-Haq celebrated a special hundred at the Home of Cricket by doing press ups, a nod to a military drill sergeant after a pre-tour boot camp in Abbottabad.
Yasir Shah picked up his first ten-wicket haul in a Test outside of Asia to complete a famous 75-run win.
And the whole team toasted that memorable win by getting into formation and doing synchronised press ups.
Ball tampering debacle
During the fourth day of the fourth Test at the Oval in 2006, umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove ruled the visitors had been involved with tampering with the ball.
The Pakistan side were incensed and refused to return to the field of play in protest after the tea break. The umpires saw this as Pakistan forfeiting the Test and awarded the victory to England, the first time in more than 1,000 Tests.
Captain Inzamam eventually led his side back onto the field, but they were told the game had already finished. ‘Inzi’ was acquitted of ball tampering, but banned for bringing the game into disrepute for refusing to play.
The Test was reclassified in 2008 to being abandoned rather than an England win only for that decision to be reversed a few months later.
Spot-fixing scandal
The sport was tarnished in 2010 due to the spot-fixing scandal. Three members of the Pakistan side; bowlers Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and captain Salman Butt were bribed by bookmaker Mazhar Majeed to deliberately bowl no balls at pre-arranged moments in the Test at Lord’s.
Undercover reporters at the News of the World secretly filmed Majeed accepting money and informing them the bowlers in question would deliver no balls at specific points.
Amir overstepped by a massive margin, with a photo capturing Butt looking intently at the front line to ensure it was a no-ball.
Cricket was front-page news for all the wrong reasons and there was a criminal trial in 2011 which saw the tainted trio spend time in prison.
*****
There have been many moments which will live long in the memory from this great cricketing rivalry. Some of which fans of the sport would sooner forget, but they have their place in the history books.
This tour is sure to be played in the right spirit and England captain Ben Stokes has already pledged his match fees from the trip to the relief fund after devastating flooding in the country.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
