Former Pakistan skipper Azhar Ali is expected to be roped-in by the England county club Surrey as the latter will be missing the services of the Indian captain Virat Kohli. Recently, Kohli had pulled out of his much-anticipated six-week County stint as he suffered a neck strain and several reported back spasms.

Several cricket fans in England were looking forward to witnessing the arrival of Virat in the County Cricket, who is perhaps the best batsmen in the world, plying his trade in what would have been his first stint in overseas domestic cricket. However, in spite of this setback, Surrey will now be targetting Azhar Ali, the batsman who is currently in England following the conclusion of the Pakistani tour.

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The recently-concluded England tour yielded mixed fortunes for the Sarfraz Ahmed-led Pakistani squad. While the win in Lord’s did indeed give a lot of hope for the young squad, the loss at Headingley Test brought everything back to square one. In the grand scheme of things, at the very least.

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur was a bit angry following the loss in the second Test has come out and backed the senior statesmen of the batting unit – Azhar and Asad Shafiq to come good in county cricket. He also added that he would certainly encourage the same for both players.

Arthur said, “Our chosen players, we’re hoping to get Azhar and Asad to play some county cricket. There is a little bit of interest at the moment, for a short period of time. Because those guys don’t go to these [T20] leagues and stuff, if they were to play county cricket we’d certainly encourage that.”