ENG vs PAK | Old Trafford Day 2 Talking Points: James Anderson, Shadab Khan and everything in between

08/06/2020

After Pakistans batsmen led the side to 326, their bowlers complimented the effort in a stunning fashion, dismissing three English batsmen to reduce them to 92/4 at the end of Day 2. Mohammed Abbas and Shaheen Shah Afridi were the two wreckers in chief to guide the side to a position of strength.

Babar = Kohli. But Anderson has none of it

Social media has been in meltdown mode for some time now. The Babar Azam-Virat Kohli comparison transcending 1990s’ Saeed Anwar-Sachin Tendulkar bonafide romance on either side of the border. However, since Nasser Hussain made the masterclass on Sky Sports, all eyes were a little bit more on the Pakistani for how he would continue to do the magical stuff on a windy second day morning with the ball moving in the air. The one thing that had been completely discounted though was the James Anderson threat and how he can suddenly rise from his first day dismal performance to take the bull by its horns. Rightfully so, Anderson channelled his 2014 version to get rid of the stylish Pakistani and ensured the matter had been dealt with some panache.

On the first day, there was a specific pattern to the way Azam hit Anderson for three fours in three overs to bring the veteran’s spell to a disappointing end. When Anderson tried to take the ball away from him, Babar rocked back and waited for the length to hit him on the rise. It was, more often than not, the most productive way to score against the wily Englishman but that comes with a caveat, as the Pakistan No.4 realised today. Luring Azam to play on the front foot and thus inviting the stride off from the fourth stump line, Anderson managed to ensure the batsman got uncomfortable from the word go and thus the full length forced him to commit that one mistake which is downright criminal in English conditions. From a Pakistani perspective, it was a sad end to a dramatic affair.

Shaheen to the fore as England’s age-old weakness kicks in

In recent times, many bowlers have evoked the memories of the lore - Jofra Archer, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Pat Cummins, and Kagiso Rabada - but as far as the fundamentals of the old-school pace mannerisms go, very few satiate the demands like Shaheen Shah Afridi. The lanky pacer has all the tools of a proper pace bowler and that left-arm angle which doesn’t have many proponents currently. Bowling from over the wicket to right-handers and then swinging the ball back in is the classic strength that Afridi possesses - a trait that made English cricket suffer more than anything.

According to Cricviz, since the start of 2017, England players have combinedly averaged only 24.2 against left-arm pace bowlers in Tests and that has plummeted further from 2018. During the period, Joe Root’s Test average falls from 40 to 34 against left-arm pace while Ben Stokes’s average drops to 25 from 42. Against that line of attack, batsmen tend to take their front pad out of the way to such deliveries, with their front knee pointing towards mid-on, rather than straight down the ground. This is a problem that has crippled England fairly a lot of times and Pakistan will really be happy having this Afridi in the squad more than ever.

Shadab Khan’s innings to be the final calling card?

No matter how much England batsmen go on to score from here, their bowlers would be left to rue such a predicament because 326 should have never existed in the first place. Shadab Khan came, saw and conquered the fort with absolute ferocity while giving a sturdy Shan Masood his chance to come good in an organic manner. Even though wickets were falling in a heap, Shadab, a pinch-hitter in ODI cricket, took refuge in the way Sam Curran dismantled India a couple of years ago and scored a fantastic 45 to ensure Pakistan crossed the coveted 300-run mark.

You see in Test cricket, with one batsman at the other end being patient, it requires effing amounts of the mixture in both application and patience to come good. So Shadab and Masood planned the innings in a beautiful manner, with the latter facing pacers from one end while letting the leg-spinner have his share of fun against his own kind of bowlers. It allowed them the required amount of downtime to keep the scoreboard moving and England’s lack of plan B, or essentially the absence of partnership-breaker Ben Stokes meant the side failed to crack that in the middle, helping them add as much as 105 runs for the sixth wicket. With the Pakistani pacers making early inroads, Joe Root would now rue every single run his team conceded today.