Pakistan captain Misbahul Haq put the blame for the crushing second Test defeat at Old Trafford on the shoulders of the batsmen, saying that their output was unacceptable.
“Our batting was a big disappointment,” said Misbah. “To get 198 and 234 on a good pitch — you can’t take that.”
Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah took 10-141 at Lord’s but only managed figures of 1-266 at Old Trafford.
Misbah, at a loss to explain the discrepancy, felt that maybe Yasir’s workload was to blame, with the second Test coming hot on the heels of the first one. “It was tiredness maybe, a lot of overs — I don’t know,” he said. “It was a big difference. But he is a strong character, and before the next Test he will analyse what went wrong — and come back.”
Pakistan have three ‘reserve batsmen’ in their squad in Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan and Sami Aslam.
They will hope to press their case for a Test call-up in a two-day tour game against Worcestershire starting on Friday. “It’s a chance for us and them at Worcester,” said Misbah. “Some of them [the current top order] are getting starts but not converting those starts into bigger innings.”
Cook-ing with Root
Alastair Cook said batting with Joe Root encouraged “blockers like me” to go for their shots.
Cook and Root scored 506 runs between them at Old Trafford. “[Root] is a world-class player, and it was a great innings — one of the best I’ve seen — to really set up the game for us,” said Cook. “He keeps the scoreboard ticking over, so blockers like me get carried away.”
The only downside for England on Monday was when all-rounder Ben Stokes went off midway through his sixth over with a right calf injury.
And Cook said Stokes, returning to England action for the first time since injuring his left knee in the Sri Lanka series opener in May, was a ‘fairly big doubt’ for next week’s third Test at Edgbaston.
Cook was delighted by the way England had upped their game after being well below their best at Lord’s.
“It was us showing the standard of cricket we can play,” he said. “We didn’t do that at Lord’s. We didn’t bowl as well as we could [there], certainly didn’t bat as well as we could, and dropped too many catches. We put most of those things right in this game.”
There are basically two explanations for our loss in the second test.1) Fatigue and lack of concentration. . As the English team built up a huge total one could see signs of fatigue appearing in the pakistani team. They showed in the older players first esp. in the slips–late reactions to possible catches and dropped catches. When Pakistan batted the fatigue showed again. After spending hours in the field esp in the slips the elderly pakistani batsmen with tired eyes faced onslaught from the fast bowlers and they blinked. As soon as a batsman had scored around 40 runs he lacked concentration and lost his wicket. It was a pity to see over the age batsmen loose their wicket just when they should have gone on to score a ton! If the Coach or the captain had not observed this it is mind boggling. In the next test see to it there is field changing periodically esp.in the slips. I write with the experience of being both a an international sportsman and as a coach(not cricket).It is only when fatigue gets in the tough get going but it should be prevented at all costs so as to perserve concentration. One cannot face a hard ball coming at you at 150 km per hour from 22 yards esp one is mentally tired. There is no synergy between psche and somatic.
Poor opening stand is one the main reason for Pakistan batting collapse. Since our openers can stand on the pitch long enough, middle order batsman have to come out and face new ball. Which always create problem for them. If openers can play for 20-30 overs then i don't think rest of batsmen won't be able to do the same.
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