ENG vs PAK | Old Trafford Day 1 Talking Points: The Masood reinvention and Pakistan’s enhanced approach

08/05/2020

In a rain-curtailed day in Manchester, Pakistan found their innings beautifully paced, much better than anyone would have expected, to end the Day 1 in a commanding position. However, that couldn’t make up for the frustration of the part-lifeless wicket, landing a new question for the ECB.

Shan Masood takes a leap from the past to enhance his Anderson game

Shan Masood is a left-handed delight. When on flow, he is the kind of batsman you wouldn’t mind being the only person on the stands on a hot summer day. The most contrasting aspect is that even when he is strangled, he doesn’t go to a shell. It is this dichotomy that is often the solid foundation on which Masood has gone on to become one of the first names on the Pakistan Test team sheet now. However, he also has a past and that past is pretty much Virat Kohli-sized to look back on. Before this tour, Masood was dismissed by James Anderson six times in 57 deliveries and he scored two or less four times in those innings. It is a threat that can only be encapsulated on a mental level and rising beyond it needed some pretty good skill-set and confidence.

And boy, hasn’t Masood done with some aplomb in the first Test at Emirates Old Trafford! In a country where overseas openers have averaged 17.67 since 2018, Masood played one of the bravest knocks of recent times. After quietly negotiating the Anderson-Broad threat, thanks to the simple body movement and a kind of forward trigger that kept his bat away from the away-swingers. When Broad mixed up the seam movement and tried to hit the deck hard, Masood's innovation came to the fore as the southpaw, who played three first-class games for Durham University, left the ball on the rise while having the soft hands at play. He employed the same tactics against Jofra Archer and Chris Wokaes and safely negotiated the jitters on his way to a crafty unbeaten 46.

You see, it is all about approach

For every team around the world, there is a lesson or two to take from the way Pakistan - especially Babar Azam and Shan Masood - adapted themselves to the conditions, typically difficult to bat first after winning the toss. Masood hung back, decided to set his eye in while Babar, one of the most attractive batsmen going around in world cricket, played shots the way only he can. It was the amalgamation of two very contrasting approaches, yet the eventuality that panned out amidst multiple typically English rain interventions left a beautiful lesson for every single team in the world.

To contextualise it further, let’s go back to Pakistan’s tour of Australia last December. In conditions where initiative overtakes survival, Pakistan failed to cope with their inadequate dynamism and left to rue what became a forgettable tour. There, Pakistan tried to survive rather than scoring runs and before they found out that it was not the way to go in conditions like that, the advantage had been traded already. Here, the combo pack of Masood and Azam didn’t make that mistake - they pounced on the time a ball was wayward enough and if you have watched this on Television rather than reading here, you would have understood the impact it left on the English bowler’s psyche. The faltering strength became the obnoxious trademark - something the Asian side - which is actually the best team in recent times in not losing a series in England, would love to continue for the rest of the tour.

The pitch-side problem for Elworthy’s grand scheme

‘Is cricket ready for a hybrid problem?’ In another time, this would have been a laughing stock of a question. But hey, we are in extraordinary times and nothing had really prepared us for such a situation in our lives. However, cricket and cricket boards across the board will be thankful for a certain Steve Elworthy for showing a way that it is possible to bring cricket back in full force despite knowing that the threat of this deadly-predator is at an all-time high. So we can really have this conversation and something I discussed a bit in our match feature during the second ODI between England and Ireland in Southampton last week.

However, the opening Test between England and Pakistan gave us a bigger problem to negotiate on. After two consecutive Test matches at the same venue - all within 12 days - the Old Trafford wicket seemed like a grand dad cramping up his Provident Fund savings without any concrete plan. The moment Dom Bess managed to turn the ball into Shan Masood, the cracks started laughing at the English pacers and after that their every single attempt was a desperate nudge on the back. Well, the hybrid water insulation underneath the surface managed to have their own right sting for the Windies series but after months of Test matches and then some competitive warm-up games, it seems all too tired. Did the ECB take this into account when things were planned? What they did was amazing but this is a new problem that will keep them on their toes when Australia will tour earlier next month.