Sky Sports’ Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton reflect on the opening day of the second Test between Pakistan and England in Multan…
Which team had the best of day one?
Pakistan closed day one of the second Test on 259-5, recovering from Jack Leach’s (2-92) double-strike in the first 10 overs which reduced the hosts to 19-2
Hussain: “Without sitting on the fence, I honestly think both sides will walk off going, ‘we’ve done OK there’.
“For the turmoil surrounding Pakistan cricket, and the few weeks they’ve had, losing six in a row, the selectors will be breathing a huge sigh of relief.
“They’ve picked people on debut like Kamran (Ghulam) – replacing Babar Azam, one of the all-time greats of Pakistan cricket – and he immediately gets a hundred.
“England will be happy as well. It was bouncing shin-high, there was no pace and it was still a lot of hard work to get five wickets on that surface.
“(Ben) Stokes and (Brendon) McCullum will be looking at that dressing room and saying, ‘you did pretty well today’.”
First thoughts on the used Multan pitch?
The second Test in Multan is the first instance of back-to-back Test matches being played on exactly the same surface
Hussain: “Firstly, it was a much more watchable day with something for the bowlers – either a bit of reverse-swing or a bit of spin. The first day of the first Test, there wasn’t much of that… for all five days, even.
“No one has ever played back-to-back Test matches on the same surface, so we don’t know what this pitch is going to do on effectively day eight, day nine.
“I think it will spin a bit more, but I don’t think it will do as much as an Indian pitch on the red soil of Mumbai or Chennai. I don’t know if it will explode.
“With the Kookaburra ball, it goes soft so easily. With a hard Dukes ball, on those cracks, you’d get turn and bounce.
“We normally say in England that the new ball is vital for the seamers, but here it will be for the spinners – like today, with Leach taking two wickets in the first 45 minutes. When the ball is hard, it grips, bounces and turns.
“Get runs in your first innings, because who knows how it’s going to be second time round. “I still think 300-plus (is a par score), as it hasn’t done much for the seamers, there’s no zip.
“This pitch needs to turn or get uneven (over the final four days), because it’s still pretty good for batting. I don’t see it as a minefield yet.”
Atherton: “There’s been a little bit more there for the bowlers than there was for the first three days of the first Test match. The balance between the bat and ball has been a little bit better, which has made life more interesting.
“The pitch has played fine. It looks a bit cracked in the middle… we all expected the ball would spin a little bit more.
“We have seen a little bit more but by no means is it vicious spin – not the kind of spin that, if you get yourself in as a batsman, that you’re going to really worry about.”
Kamran debut ton rescues Pakistan from nervy start
Pakistan batter Kamran Ghulam, on Test debut – having replaced former captain Babar Azam in one of three changes to the team from the first Test – posted a maiden century before falling late in the day for 118
Hussain: “Some debut, given who he was replacing!
“He’s had to wait his turn. He’s been scoring prolific runs in (domestic cricket) the last three years.
“From the moment he came in, he got the right balance between attack and defence. They had lost a couple of early wickets – but I always felt, on debut, you want to get out there, so I think that will have helped him.
“Pakistan players generally love the sweep shot, he’s got that in his locker, and he used his feet well.
“He’s got a bit of Steve Smith about him too, when he defends the ball and charges. He’s got a bit of swagger about him.”
Atherton: “At 19-2, I’d imagine that dressing room was a pretty nervy place.
“Change can be unsettling and they’ve made three big changes from the first Test – probably the three biggest-name players from Pakistan have gone out of the side (Babar, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah) – so that can be destabilising, especially when you lose two early wickets, with a debutant coming in…
“I thought the two batters (Kamran and Saim Ayub) played especially well, their partnership forged under pressure and with the debutant playing particularly well.”
Have England picked the right team?
Pakistan have gone into the Test with seven spinners in total, four front-line options, and only one seamer, while England have gone with the same balance of side as the first Test, three seamers and two spinners
Atherton: “The backdrop to the game is extraordinary.
“Pakistan come into the game with seven spinners! England, meanwhile, have got three seamers.
“It’s like walking into a party with one of you in black tie and one in fancy dress… somebody has got this wrong.
“I’ve seen it said, why haven’t England picked Rehan Ahmed? I actually think England have picked the right side, it’s balanced for the conditions.”
Thoughts on Stokes’ captaincy on return from injury
England captain Ben Stokes missed the first Test, failing to recover from a hamstring injury picked up in August, but returned to lead the side in the second Test
Hussain: “What you gain with one mode of bowling, you lose with the other.
“You gain with a bit of spin early on, because it’s effectively a six-day pitch, but there is an extreme lack of pace. This pitch has died completely.
“Stokes’ captaincy is fascinating, for me… he thought he has to get his catchers in front of the wicket, because there’s no pace in the pitch, but he has to balance that, because when it did start reverse-swinging, a couple of nicks went and Joe Root wasn’t there (at slip). You have to buy a ticket to win the lottery in this part of the world.
“Stokes has always been able to think outside of the box. Every time you give him a situation like this, he manages to think his way through it.”
Atherton: “It’s not like in England where you’re going to get catches at slip and in that arc between keeper and gully.
“We didn’t see a slip catch off a quick bowler in the first Test and, now, with this pitch even lower, there’s hardly any chance of catches going there.
“It’s really important that you don’t let things settle, don’t let things drift, you find ways of asking questions of the batters. That’s what Stokes did. You find inventive ways and inventive field positions where you think you’re going to get a catch.
“The conditions determine the way you play the game, and the way you captain the game. There is no point setting a field like you’re at Headingley or Durham in April or May, in Multan it’s completely different.”
Watch day two of the second Test between Pakistan and England in Multan, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event from 5.50am on Wednesday, ahead of play starting from 6am. Stream with NOW
