ENG vs PAK | Ageas Bowl Day 3 Talking Points - Pakistan’s Shafiq excuse and England’s Archer blunder

ByAnirudh Suresh, SportsCafe Editor

08/23/2020

On a day where Pakistan looked like they were destined to get bowled out twice, Azhar Ali, of all people, did the unthinkable and scored a warrior-like ton to keep the visitors’ hope of drawing the Test alive. It was a bittersweet day for Anderson, whose teammates denied him wicket number 600.

Pakistan finally have their excuse to drop Asad Shafiq

Asad Shafiq might have one more chance to save his Test career, but you wonder if Pakistan would be better off if he fails in the second innings, so that they could finally move on. Far too long they have clung on to non-existent hope and have invested in Shafiq's talent without getting the expected returns.

For four years, the right-hander has, time and again, ‘threatened’ to go on a big, consistent run, but on each occasion, his ‘knocks of hope’ - such as the 104 against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi and 88 versus South Africa in Cape Town - have instead served as a smokescreen for a string of bog-standard scores. This time around, though, he has nowhere to hide; there have been no knocks of hope in this series. His dismissal in the first innings today was in fact the third instance in his last four innings of Shafiq perishing after prodding his bat outside-off stump and nicking one to the slip cordon.

Strictly merit-wise, there is no reason for Pakistan to not drop Shafiq after this series: in 4 innings, he has scored 46 runs at 11.50 and has faced an average of 21.5 balls per innings, a tally inferior to that of both Yasir Shah and Dom Bess. He is 34 (turning 35 in 5 months’ time), the light in him seems to be fading with every passing day and given his seniority has done little for Pakistan post the Misbah-Younis era, this series might have just presented Pakistan with the perfect excuse to finally move away from Shafiq for brighter and better beginnings.

Fawad Alam’s 21 runs of substance

To say Fawad Alam was ‘a bit nervous’ when he walked out to bat today would be a grave understatement. He was a mess. And no, it was not because of his noticeable stance or his other idiosyncrasies; his batting, put simply, was in complete shambles. Alam himself knew it, which is exactly why he looked up and thanked the heavens after getting off the mark on his 7th ball.

Yet somehow, despite being down on confidence, despite having the odds stacked against him, the southpaw literally forcefully extracted runs out of his bat. He dug in, grew in confidence with every ball and there was a lingering self-belief about his approach which, as ugly as it looked, rendered his batting effective. When he walked in, it looked like there was no way he was going to last 74 balls - yet he did. And that was a testament to his mental strength, which is what has earnt him a place in the team after 11 long years.

He might have scored just 21, but what stood out about Alam’s batting today was he understood what he needed to do and became comfortable with his own clunkiness as his innings progressed. The fidgety prods he presented in the first quarter of his knock turned into solid blocks in the second and by quarter three, he was pulling Jofra Archer’s 146kph rockets with ease. Sure he would be kicking himself for throwing his wicket away in quarter four, but you suspect by then he’d already made a case for the management to give him an extended rope.

England drop the ball on Archer

It is remarkable how, 11 Tests in, Root and England have little idea on how to effectively use Archer. If there’s one thing that has stood out about Archer in the course of his one-year long Test career, it’s that he is a rhythm bowler. When he’s on song, he’ll kill you but when his mood is off, he will, non-threateningly, deliver you runs and freebies on a platter. Post lunch today, Archer was in the mood to kill but England, flabbergastingly, took him out of the attack when he was on the verge of exploding.

Archer’s spell post lunch today was the fastest he’d bowled all summer. He was delivering rockets ball after ball and there was one particular over where his speeds read 89, 90, 91, 92 and 93 mph. It was in the very same over that he almost sent Azhar packing with an absolute snorter. So, with Pakistan teetering at 49/4, and with Archer in the middle of a Lords 2019’esque spell, all Root needed was to perhaps say a nice word or two and keep bowling the speedster - wickets (maybe even that of Azhar) would have tumbled. But, for some reason, the English skipper took Archer, who was in the middle of his best spell of the series, out of the attack, with the speedster having just bowled four overs in the spell.

The result? Azhar, who was on 21* at the time of Archer’s spell, went on to score a ton and Archer, who was delivering rockets post-lunch, was back to bowling 'toothpaste'. Archer’s first-ball in his third spell was clocked at an underwhelming 130 kph and, after conceding just 12 runs off his first 7 overs, the speedster leaked 40 off his next 9.