England will play a three-day warm-up match against an ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI today at the ICC Global Cricket Academy in Dubai. The Englishmen will play one more 3-day warm-up match after this which will be against the PCB XI ahead of their First Test against Pakistan which begins on the 17th.
The ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI is going to be led by Ireland Skipper William Porterfiled. The team has three more players from Ireland including the highly talented batsman Paul Stirling. The ICC team consists of players from five countries - Ireland, UAE, Scotland, Afghanistan and Namibia.
England will go into this game without Tim Bresnan who has been ruled out with an elbow strain. This warm-up match will mainly help the English players to get acclimatized to the severe heat conditions in the middle-east.
Here are the two teams for today’s Warm-Up Match at Dubai :
England Squad : Andrew Strauss (Captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior (Wicket Keeper), Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn, James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Steven Davies (Wicket Keeper), Chris Tremlett, Monty Panesar
ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI Squad : William Porterfield (Captain), George Dockrell, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling (all from Ireland), Saqib Ali (UAE), Kyle Coetzer, Majid Haq (both from Scotland), Hamid Hassan, Mohammed Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad (WK) (all from Afghanistan), Christi Viljoen, Craig Williams (both from Namibia)
