Pak vs Eng: Second day of first Test

Pakistan resumed their innings on the second day of the first test in the ongoing series against England on Tuesday. Saud Shakeel replaced Naseem Shah as the latter continued his partnership against opponents.

The national side received an early blow as opener Saim Ayub was caught behind against Gus Atkinson at a mere four runs after the national side won the toss and elected to bat first on Monday. However, 114-run stand between Masood and opener Abdullah Shafique saw the national side sail to 122-1 at lunch.

The game closed at 328/4 with Shakeel at 35 and Shah at naught on the crease. It is a series-opening encounter and is scheduled at Multan Cricket Stadium for the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25.

In the game on Monday, Masood was given lbw off a delivery by Brydon Carse – in the second over of the debutant seamer’s Test career – but the batter reviewed the verdict and had it overturned with replays confirming it pitched outside the leg stump.

Masood went on to take two runs off Atkinson to race to a 43-ball fifty. Shafique got a reprieve on 35 when he went for an injudicious single and England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope’s direct throw just missed the stumps.

Not one to give up, the stand-in captain finally sent Shafique into the pavilion at 59.5 over upon missing the stumps, when the player had scored 102 runs of 184 balls with 10 boundaries and two towering sixes. However, players like Saim Ayub couldn’t help the team do much and were caught with just four runs.

Not to be left behind, the star of the day, Masood, after contributing most with 151 runs off 177 balls, including 13 shots towards the boundary and two sixes, was caught at 62.3 overs by Jack Leach of a delivery by Joe Root. One could see Babar Azam striving for a half century but prepared less than 40 runs.

Former white-ball captain made 30 off 71 after five fours, directing towards the pavilion at 84.3 overs after Chris Woakes dismissed the player through a lbw.

Bowling first, Woakes and Leach accounted for one wicket each on the allied account of Atkinson. It needs to be mentioned here that England are under the captaincy of Ollie Pope in the first Test because the visitors’ captain Ben Stokes was ruled out for the contest owing to their hamstring injury in the Hundred League.

Moreover, James Anderson is also not touring Pakistan along with the team, as he is participating in Scotland’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

This was the last time England visited Pakistan for a red-ball series, handing a 3-0 defeat to the national side in 2022. The visitors had, till then, played 24 Tests in Pakistan, out of which they had won only two; these facts therefore made the 3-0 win all the more remarkable.

Playing XI Pakistan: Shan Masood-captain, Saud Shakeel-vice-captain, Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan-wicketkeeper, Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmad England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir

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