Seventeen days after taming Pakistan in the T20 World Cup final in Melbourne, England continued their dominance of Babar Azam and his men, this time in the red-ball format.
RAWALPINDI: Seventeen days after taming Pakistan in the T20 World Cup final in Melbourne, England continued their dominance of Babar Azam and his men, this time in the red-ball format.
On a seemingly dead Pindi wicket, England gave Pakistan a taste of ‘Bazball’ as they smashed 506-4 in just 75 overs, breaking a series record and all but effectively blasting the hosts out of the opening Test on the first day. With Harry Brook (101 off 81) and skipper Ben Stokes (34 off 15) set to resume the innings on Friday morning and Will Jacks and Liam Livingstone yet to come, England has the firepower to add another 500 against toothless Pakistan. Attack on a benign trace.
But instead of amassing a massive total, England would look to get Pakistan into bat as early as possible to ensure they have enough time to take 20 wickets and win the series opener. That’s the difference between the two teams.
England is a team that wants to win Tests at any cost. Brendon McCullum, the England coach, whose nickname ‘Baz’ is the basis of the pun ‘Bazball,’ announced in the lead-up to the three-Test series that his team would go all out for results, even if there were a risk of losing. Pakistan, in stark contrast, is a team that almost always tries to avoid defeat. That is the only explanation for another graveyard on the pitch at Pindi, where England’s batters beat Pakistan’s bowling attack spectacularly.
Test cricket has rarely seen such a merciless thrashing of the home team, and that too on the opening day of the series. England, playing their first Test in Pakistan since 2005, treated Pakistan’s attack with disdain. A stunning 233-run partnership between openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett came as a hammer blow for Pakistan, who were all but tripped up by the opposition in a one-sided opening day. Crawley and Duckett both scored effortless tons in the fastest opening stand in Test history. The other two came from Brook and Ollie Pope. The way Stokes bats and the hosts’ bowl, a fifth century will not be a surprise on Friday. This is the first time in Test history that a team has ended the first day with four centurions. This is the first time four or more batsmen scored a century in a Test innings against Pakistan. The most significant record of the day was England, who became the first team to cross the 500-run mark on the first day of a Test. With 506 points on opening day, the visitors broke a record that had stood for 112 years.
As England basked in the glory of one of their most memorable Test outings in Pakistan, the hosts had to wonder, what happened?
They have just been blown away by the English juggernaut. Stokes and his men must be given due credit for that. But what happened on Thursday was only possible with the help of the hosts. Pakistan dug its own grave by setting up a perfectly quiet wicket. Then they deployed an inexperienced bowling attack.
It was a recipe for disaster, and the Pakistani team’s think tank was responsible for it. They picked uncapped medium pacer Mohammad Ali over the likes of Mohammad Abbas and Fahim Ashraf. They opted for the delicate spin of Zahid Mahmood ahead of young mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed. It’s quite a long list of bad calls. And they can cost Pakistan in this Test and the entire series. After what happened on Thursday, a Pakistani victory in Pindi is the most likely outcome. The best they can do now is to save this Test to keep alive their hopes of a 2-0 series win and stay alive in their quest to qualify for the World Test Championship final. But for a team whose strategy is to avoid defeat, such an ambitious goal seems out of reach.
