England Cricket / Ralph Ellis / 04 January 2012 /

England face a serious test in their series against Pakistan so it's a good thing that they will be boosted by the return of their almost-all-rounder, says, Ralph Ellis.

It's diet week. Is yours still lasting? My good intentions about eating more healthily bit the dust at Bristol City last night when I couldn't resist a proper (in Bristol? Ed) Cornish pasty. Still, I suppose three days for a New Year's resolution is not too bad.

Thankfully, it seems that Stuart Broad is made of sterner stuff. He's been revealing this morning that he's tuned up for a return to Test cricket by putting himself on a strict diet while recovering from the arm injury that kept him out of the tour of India. It involved restricting himself to 2,000 calories a day, with his meals supplied by a company called Soul Mate Food. They were backed by the ECB, but the endorsement falls down there because Broad admits he lasted six weeks on the diet before he got fed up with it and went back to chocolate and the odd beer.

Anyway, the nearest England have got to a proper all-rounder is now fit and well, and ready to return to action in the series against Pakistan that's about to start in Dubai. And the details of his diet aren't the only good gossip to be found in a long article he's written for today's Daily Mail. It seems Alastair Cook got married at his farm on New Year's Eve and then drove off after the service on a tractor.

More significant is that, before those celebrations, Broad and the other England bowlers had been in South Africa having specialist training in the warm weather at Potchefstroom. That's another little sign of the terrific attention to detail that has become the hallmark of Andy Flower's regime. The commitment to retaining the status as the world's number one Test team is as strong as ever.

It will need to be, because the series against Pakistan will be far more testing than people might imagine. In the fall-out from the spot-fixing scandal there have been significant changes, not only to the team but to the back room staff, in particular the return of Aaqib Javed as bowling coach. He has insisted on the recall of dangerous left-armer Wahab Riaz to lead the attack which will give the Pakistanis a genuine cutting edge.

Riaz has been exiled for six months after being named in court and implicated in the spot-fixing scandal. But with nothing proved against him, he's been cleared to return and will come back with a vengeance. Javed's verdict is that he has at his disposal: "a dream combination which is the world's best bowling attack. We have bowlers who will last the time on slower pitches in the UAE, who can bowl at 150 plus kph, and can reverse swing."

England would make that same claim about their own attack, especially with Broad returning, and that could mean a series that follows the recent trend for fewer matches to last the distance. A draw is [2.46] favourite for the first Test, which looks a very good opportunity to lay.

Five things you might not know about Wahab Riaz

1. Born June 1985 in Lahore, his dad is a successful businessman who has backed his career. He taught him to bowl left handed after he'd copied other boys to bat right handed. Mum was a different matter, when he was young she tried to stop him playing cricket to concentrate on his schoolwork.

2. He studied maths and economics at Islamia College in Lahore, and began his cricketing career playing for the National Bank who also gave him a job.

3. Left out of the national side for two years after an average ODI debut in 2008, he took five wickets on his Test debut against England.

4. He's a bit of a cult hero for his dancing in Pakistan after film of him celebrating at his sister's wedding to onto the internet.

5. He took a hat-trick for Kent in a Twenty20 game with Gloucestershire last season - and one was one wicket away from a second in the same game after getting Alex Gidman and David Payne with successive balls - the next against last man Muralitharan just missed the stumps.

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