Pakistan might struggle to contain a confident England team when the sides meet in their forthcoming Test Series
Pakistan have made a habit of whacking England across the shins to bring their heads plummeting from the clouds and the three-Test series in the UAE, the land of towering ambitions, offers a tantalising opportunity for them to do so again.
There is no doubt that this is a David and Goliath battle in every sense. Pakistan cricket has never been so low following the spot-fixing convictions of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir while they remain a side low on ability. England, by contrast, are the No 1 Test side in the world and have few weaknesses.
But what makes it such an appetising contest is Pakistan's ability to upset the formbook. When the sides last met outside of England, in Pakistan in 2005, they gave a cocky England team, who looked capable of scaling the summit of the Test rankings, a bloody nose which haemorrhaged their progress following that extraordinary Ashes win.
The fact the Tests will be played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium (matches one and three) and the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi add to a feeling that we cannot take an England victory for granted. This is unchartered territory for Andrew Strauss' side while Pakistan are used to playing at these venues having been 'stationed' in the two Emir states since 2010.
Undoubtedly conditions will favour Pakistan. Seam and swing should be at a premium while England's batsmen will face trial by spin. The efficient Saeed Ajmal, Pakistan's twirler in chief, has already claimed he has plans for each of England runmakers.
Indeed, England have hardly covered themselves in glory in their warm-up against an ICC Combined XI. Really, they should have crushed such a hotch-potch collection of individuals. That they did not suggests an unfamiliarity with their surroundings.
But we should not get carried away with Pakistan. They are notoriously unreliable and a wager on them winning the series cannot be countenanced because one knows that it is highly unlikely they will be able to put consecutive session performances together to win two Tests, which they are undoubtedly going to have to do.
Seven wins from their last nine Tests, including zero defeats, suggests otherwise but the calibre of their opponents in that sequence does not stand up to scrutiny: West Indies, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka (whose players had not been paid since April) and Bangladesh.
England will find a way either through sheer bloody hard work on the pitch or off. They have an extraordinary backroom team which finds chinks in an opponent's armour and this is a series where the spreadsheets and databases should pay dividends.
For that reason - and a run of only two defeats in their last 20 - they rate a pretty good wager at 2.20. Pakistan are 3.70 and the draw is 3.55.
We are expecting Pakistan to make them sweat, though not least because Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, has alluded to a safety-first gameplan. In fact, they could be darn negative and try to bore England into submission, the sort of tactics which England touring sides have applied when travelling to the country in the past.
The pitches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi suggest Pakistan will be aided in their quest. In the two Tests played so far in Dubai there has been one win and one draw. But the surface has the potential to be a road. Pakistan batted 117 overs in the fourth innings against South Africa in 2010 to earn a stalemate.
Abu Dhabi is less bowler friendly. Both Tests there have ended in draws. Only 27 wickets fell when Pakistan met South Africa in 2010 and the same number were taken against Sri Lanka last year.
With that in mind a 2-0 England victory is probably the most likely call for correct series score punters at 5.00. An upset would be a 1-1 draw but the odds of 4.80 suggest otherwise.
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England to win series at 2.20 with betfair
