PAK vs ENG 2024/25, second PAK vs ENG fit check preview


Voluminous image: rip the script and go out once again

Fans had been out in force in Multan this day, but not, as might be true, to protest against the problems of a Pakistan team that has now lost six Tests in a row. Instead, they have been buzzing at both ends of the heavily watered strip of concrete that served as a record Test wicket during the final day’s first Test, eager to transform into something entirely out of character.

Certain occasions call for certain measures, but this has been a normal reaction to the humiliating first game of closing day. Losing in an entry with the score closest to 556 is equivalent to being eaten by a shark sitting on a tree post. It has been an attack on Pakistan’s belief in truth and an obvious invitation to paranoia, with the feeling that nothing is safe from an England team that has now transcended the hosts’ situations to win four away Tests. in the jump.

Who knows what awaits those closest to us? The fans have done their part, but still, a tournament with lower scores than they used to be during the first five days of this sound’s life. The crackers who did their part to reduce Pakistan to 82 in six of their second innings will surely bring the spinners into the game from the start of this second Test, which in theory would coordinate the entire tournament and increase Pakistan’s chances of claiming. the 20 wickets that so obviously escaped them the first time.

Rather, who takes those wickets more to be evident, on the contrary. Of the three sailors who, to tell the truth, performed very well in terrible situations on the last day, both Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah were eliminated, leaving Abrar Ahmed, Pakistan’s first-choice red-ball bowler, out of this tournament. hospitalized mid-lockdown. Mir Hamza used to be named in the team as a left-arm new-ball option but has been overtaken as a three-spinner preference. Noman Ali, Sajid Khan and Zahid Mahmood are at least professional options in spinning, but none of them have played a first-class match in nine months.

And, although it is difficult to see the bowling problem becoming more difficult than it used to be in that first check, Pakistan’s solid cover has had the accidental side effect of nourishing England’s batting. Upon his return from a major hamstring tear, Ben Stokes is believed to have been expected to carry the bowling load that Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson carried in that game. Instead, with Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir more likely to find enough numbers to secure them, he is in a position to step back into the third spot and add to an already powerful batting line-up an extra layer of risk in Deny. .6.

For England, the main problem is also psychological. Harry Brook and Joe Root are up against the wall during their epic 454-run surge in the first Test, with the fight for perpetuity in the sweltering heat of Multan at least equivalent to that posed by Pakistan’s attack. Discovering the desire to start over from scratch, especially on what is nominally the same surface, can be an exciting thought experiment.

That said, there are enough hungry batsmen elsewhere in that England situation, including Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, who let a lot of charges slip through their own hands… and the hapless Ollie Pope, who flogged his second ball to midwicket. for the nearest 0, one will be taken for the team as a substitute starter. As much as Freddie Flintoff might be doing for the failed contestants on Bullseye right now, he then had to “look at what you could have won” because the awards were handed out before him.

Method information

Pakistan LLLLL (close of 5 checks, most updated first)
England WLWWW

Highlights: Shan Masood and Shoaib Bashir

It used to be important how temporarily Shan Masood He turned his ire on his bowlers after Pakistan’s defeat in the innings. On the one hand, he had some breadth: England claimed 19 wickets (with Abrar absent) to Pakistan’s seven, so his claim that “good teams find a way” had some edge. Instead, that omitted a serious lapse in standards in Pakistan’s second innings, in which Masood himself was deeply culpable. But with a deft 151 in the first innings (which was also his first century since the excursion to England four years ago), he must have been stuck twice before blasting a dolly at midwicket for 11 on that fateful fourth night. . In addition to his retirement, it became evident that the battle had left the team he has now captained to six consecutive defeats. Along with his predecessor Babar Azam, who looks the part for batting this month, Masood also has no excuses if he cannot spur a counter-attack in the coming days.

Shoaib Bashirwho turned 21 on Sunday, has a busy day and a big new month, with three five-wicket hauls in ten checks, including a winning display against the West Indies at Trent Bridge this summer. But the feeling that he is a moving piece has been exacerbated by his new performances, especially against Sri Lanka at The Oval and in the first Multan Test on the final day. He lacked control in the first over, after being comprehensively outplayed by Somerset team-mate Jack Leach at the end, by seven wickets to 1 at the baseline. On a pitch that is adapting to avoid spin, he might find encouragement to deploy an extra line of attack on the outside, having invariably drifted too directly towards the stumps at the first check; partly, you think, as a defensive reflex. in deeply inhospitable situations. Either way, he will also be grateful for Pakistan’s coverage in this tournament, as otherwise he would have been the clear man to create the strategy for Stokes’ comeback.

Workforce Information: Pakistan Title 3 Spinners; Stokes returns

The exchange was inevitable on the day closest to the tragic end of Pakistan’s loss… but it may no longer be of this kind. First, the selection committee changed, with Aleem Dar, Aaqib Javed and Azhar Ali joining a panel that now has 26 people as of August 2021. After the bowling attack it was purged, with Abrar taken ill and Shaheen and Naseem. each one fell. Babar moves the closest in the middle order to an 18-innings streak without a half-century (it is up to Kamran Ghulam to fill one of the biggest voids imaginable), should the bowling attack be led by the tough – the worker Aamer Jamal and a trio of spinners. Those will come with leg-spinner Zahid, who claimed six wickets in 18.3 overs in his most recent Test, against England at this same venue two years ago, but was fielded for 115 runs in the process.

Pakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Shan Masood (captain), 4 Kamran Ghulam, 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 7 Salman Agha, 8 Aamer Jamal, 9 Sajid Khan, 10 Noman Ali, 11 Zahid Mehmood

Stokes is the leading returnee for this second Test, the closest to undergoing a longer rehabilitation following his hamstring shock in August. Although there have been some reservations about portraying him as a frontline seaman in such inhospitable situations, he has promised to be “sensible” with his workloads, and will at least rely on Leach as a way to get fit to serve the lion. percentage of the overs. With Matthew Potts fitting into Atkinson’s park, England’s attack has the dignity of three Durham fast bowlers, a prospect Stokes said could be a “proud moment for the club”.

England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (captain), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Matthew Potts, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Jack Leach, 11 Shoaib Bashir.

Sound and situations: Spin to win?

If a leopard cannot change its spots, then it is difficult to imagine how Multan’s strip of rolled dust will also transform into a spinner’s paradise, just a day closer to conceding the fourth-highest overall ever achieved in Check cricket . However, this is a deteriorated surface, which is quite common in white-ball cricket, but almost extraordinary in checks, and should change more for bowlers, even if it is much more obvious. The year and jump are usually provided once the soil moisture has evaporated. From then on, it is worth asking what happens to these important cracks in the main evidence.

Statistics and trivia

  • After his career-best 262 in the first Test, in which he overtook Alastair Cook as England’s leading run-scorer, Root’s average is back above 51 for his first age in over six years.
  • Any further victory this day would tie Root’s tenure with Shane Warne with 13 Test wins in Asia, the most for any visiting player in the patch. Leach, with 11 wins from 14 tests, would walk alongside Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting to second park on that same list.
  • Abdullah Shafique and Saim Ayub are yet to achieve a double-digit partnership in eight attempts as Pakistan’s opening pair. His average tide of 2.87 is by far the baseline for any ordinary partnership in that role.
  • Tazeem Ali, the Warwickshire and England Under-19 player, has been shooting in the nets during those two days of training in the country while he was sleeping.

Quotes

“Our instructions to the curator for the first test were that the ball should spin after the second day. But the pitch didn’t change until the fifth day. Let’s hope the ball starts spinning on the ninth day.”
Pakistani hardworking teacher, Azhar Mahmoodexplains the reason at the back of reusing the similar flooring from Multan

“Obviously I have to be sensible. Playing on a used wicket made the decision a little easier… but I am available to bowl, and when I feel the time is right to come in and make an impact, there is no There will be no doubt in my mind.”
ben stokesEngland captain may return as bowler closer to hamstring tear

Andrew Miller is the British writer for ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket



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