Colossal loss a question mark on batting

A jubilant Pakistan team moved from Lord’s to Headingley with an aim to make it 2-0 in the two-Test series against hosts England.

But the things turned the other way at Leeds when they opted to bat first after their skipper had won the toss. They were without their daring batsman Babar Azam who had flown back to Pakistan because of injury and having been ruled out of the tour earlier.

Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed after the loss at Headingley insisted that their decision to bat was right as it was a perfect batting wicket. He may be right but perhaps he had forgotten that the overcast conditions at the Leeds had always been altogether different from that of Lord’s.

Pakistan batsmen rather disappointed in both the innings, in the second outing in particular. Moreover, England also appeared a changed side as compared to Lord’s. At Lord’s England fielders, led by veteran Alastair Cook, had dropped several catches. They seemed to have learnt from their mistakes and made amends in the fielding department in particular and supported their bowlers well to dismiss Pakistan for 174 in their first innings.

On the other hand, Pakistan batsmen failed to show much wanted concentration during both the innings. They failed to adjust according to the conditions and played rather irresponsible shots and pay the penalty. Particularly they failed to cope with the moving balls from the pacers, Woakes in particular. It was only Shadab Khan who resisted for some time during his fighting knock of 56.

The things became more gloomy when Pakistan went to bat for the second time after England had amassed 363 in their first innings. Pakistan needed 179 runs to make England bat again. But this did not happen and Pakistan slumped to 134 all out in their second innings to handover England a huge victory of an innings and 55 runs.

Pakistan were at one stage 84 for 3 and such was state of affairs that they lost remaining seven wickets for just 50 runs.

It seemed that Pakistan batsmen were in hurry and were engaged in a limited overs game. Otherwise the Leeds Test could not have finished in less than three days. In the second innings too batsmen did not bother to stay at the wicket and lacked both concentration and

determination and as such had to pay the price.

However, one thing is clear from the Leeds Test that Pakistan bowlers did play their role in the drawn series but the batsmen needed a lot of improvement.

They should learn to adopt according to the conditions and draft the innings instead of playing casual and irresponsible shots and should also learn to avoid making unforced errors.