One more series just concluded in England during these difficult times. Rain played a major spoilsport in two of the three tests which means this wasn’t a series that will be remembered even for a few months except for Anderson’s 600th wicket. Having said that, we will have to appreciate the efforts taken by the England cricket team, Pakistan cricket team, the West Indies cricket team, the commentators, camera crew, organisers and last but not the least, the medical staff for ensuring a incident-free couple of series.
Pakistan always does well against England
It is not really clear how Pakistan always manages to perform well against England. It can be in Pakistan or UAE or in England itself. They have always managed to punch above their weight. It is another issue that everywhere else, they are lambs to the slaughter but against England they raise their game. In could also be a case where England lack confidence to defeat Pakistan in a series. Just sample this. It has been 10 years since Pakistan have lost a series against England. From January 1, 1987 till the last test, Pakistan and England have played 47 tests. England have won 13 and Pakistan have won 18. This includes 10 tests that Pakistan have won in England as against just one that England won in Pakistan. Overall figures still stands in favour of England with 26 wins against 21 defeats but barely. Over the last 10 years, Pakistan managed to draw a couple of series when they were expected to lose heavily. In one of the series, they managed to win two tests. It was the same series in which Misbah led the team admirably. Younis Khan and Yasir Shah won one game each for Pakistan.
Probably because of the controversies
What makes Pakistan perform above their weight against England? It is a million dollar question for which we may never find the reason. I feel that the animosity between the teams in the late 1980s and early 1990s that is still inspiring Pakistan. The Shakoor Rana – Mike Gatting incident, the ball tampering incident in the 1991 series when Akram and Waqar were absolutely unplayable with the old ball and the controversies arising out of these incidents seems to motivate Pakistan to perform much better than they are expected.
Coming back to the series
There wasn’t much to write about the series in which two tests were almost washed out. The first test was excellent. I watched the entire last day’s play when England somehow managed to crawl out. There were some good performances from Shan Masood, Babar Azam, a couple of classy fifties to win the game from Buttler and Woakes. A huge double hundred by Crawley and a hundred by Buttler.
Biggest success of the series
Zak Crawley scored a mammoth hundred. A daddy hundred as Gooch would like to term it. Good consistent scores from Buttler including a match and series winning 80odd. Contributions with both the bat and the ball from Woakes. Despite all that, the outstanding player for me in the series was Stuart Broad. It was Broad who broke the back of the Pakistan in the second innings of the first test. His quick blows to get rid of Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah derailed Pakistan and curtailed the lead within manageable level. Without Broad’s wicket, the lead would have been in excess of 300 after England’s shocking first innings capitulation.
Biggest failures of the series
This is a toss up between Yasir Shah and Jofra Archer. Having had England on the mat, Yasir Shah was expected to bowl Pakistan to victory in the first test. He was bowling on the final day with a huge enough target and the England team all but down and out and who are not that good players of leg spin bowling. Woakes & Buttler couple of blinding innings but Yasir Shah failed miserably. His four wickets should not hide the fact that a couple of them came almost towards the end of the game. England were only a few runs shot off victory.
Jofra Archer was the biggest bubble that burst, atleast in this series. His pace was down, he went for more runs, too few wickets (4 at almost 40 per wicket). Against Pakistan who are not that good players of fast bowling and that too in England, he must have got more wickets.
Finally, I settled on Yasir Shah because his lack of impact on the final afternoon in the first test was the reason England won the series.
About Joe Root
Joe Root is among the excellent batsmen in modern day cricket. He is considered among the Fab-Four of Smith, Kohli, Williamson & Root. Off late however, Root’s performance is well below average. For a player who averaged over 56 about 2-3 years ago to average less than 47, that is a huge fall. The fall is so drastic that there is no Fab-Four any longer. It is only Fab-Three. England will have to decide whether they need Root the captain or Root the batsman. With the emergence of Crawley & Pope alongwith the brilliant Stokes, England does appear to have a solid middle order but how will they perform in Asia and in Australia where Root the batsman will be much more required, remains to be seen.
About Pakistan
Pakistan do appear to have found a couple of good fast bowlers in Naseem Shan & Afridi. They are quick and impressive with years of international game ahead of them. As always with Pakistan, you never know. After the exit of Akram & Waqar and to a certain extent Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistan does not want to give their fast bowlers too long a rope. So many have fallen by the wayside. Amir, Asif, the tall lanky bowler. I don’t even remember his name and a few others. So it is too early to say whether Pakistan will stick with these bowlers over the next 10 years.