Pakistan flip approach in hope dead Multan deck comes to life

Big picture: Rip up the script, and go again

The fans have been out in force in Multan this week, but not, as might be justified, to protest against the failings of a Pakistan team that has now lost six Tests in a row. Instead, they’ve been whirring away at either end of the heavily-watered strip of concrete that doubled as a record-breaking Test wicket during last week’s first Test, willing it to transmogrify into something completely out of character.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but this has been an extraordinary response to last week’s humiliating series opener. To lose by an innings after scoring 556 is akin to being eaten by a shark while sitting at the top of a tree. It’s been an assault on Pakistan’s perception of reality, and an open invitation to paranoia, with the sense that nowhere is safe from an England team that has now transcended the hosts’ conditions to win four away Tests on the bounce.

Who knows what awaits after the fans have done their bit, besides a rather lower-scoring contest than was the case over the first five days of this pitch’s existence. The cracks that played their part in reducing Pakistan to 82 for 6 in their second innings are bound to bring the spinners into the game from the outset of this second Test, which could in theory concertina the entire contest and increase Pakistan’s chances of claiming the 20 wickets that so clearly eluded them first-time out.

Quite who takes those wickets remains to be seen, however. Of the three seamers who actually acquitted themselves pretty well in miserable conditions last week, both Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah have been dropped, while Abrar Ahmed – Pakistan’s first-choice red-ball spinner – will miss this contest after being hospitalised midway through the last. Mir Hamza was named in the squad as a left-arm new-ball option but has been overlooked in favour of three spinners. Noman Ali, Sajid Khan and Zahid Mahmood are at least experienced spinning options, but none of them has played a first-class fixture in nine months.

And, even if it’s hard to imagine the bowling challenge getting any tougher than it was in that first Test, Pakistan’s pitch policy has had the unintended consequence of strengthening England’s batting. On his return from a serious hamstring tear, there’s no way that Ben Stokes could have been expected to shoulder the seam-bowling loads that Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson carried in that game. Instead, with Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir likely to find plenty to keep them interested, he is able to slot back in as the third seamer, and give an already mighty batting line-up an extra layer of menace at No.6.

For England, the primary challenge may be a mental one. Harry Brook and Joe Root went to the wall during their epic 454-run stand in the first Test, with the effort of endurance in Multan’s sweltering heat at least equal to that posed by Pakistan’s attack. Finding the will to start again from scratch, especially on what is nominally the same surface, could be an interesting psychological experiment.

That said, there are plenty of hungry batters elsewhere in that England order, including both Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, who let huge hundreds slip through their own fingers … and the luckless Ollie Pope, who spanked his second ball to midwicket for 0 after taking one for the team as a stand-in opener. Much as Freddie Flintoff might be doing for failed contestants on Bullseye later this year, he then had to “look at what you could have won” as the prizes were paraded before him.

Form guide

Pakistan LLLLL (last five Tests, most recent first)
England WLWWW

In the spotlight – Shan Masood and Shoaib Bashir

It was notable how quickly Shan Masood turned his ire onto his bowlers in the aftermath of Pakistan’s innings defeat. On the one hand, he had a point: England claimed 19 wickets (with Abrar absent) to Pakistan’s seven, and so his assertion that “good teams find a way” had some merit. On the other, that ignored a grievous collapse in standards in Pakistan’s second innings, in which Masood himself was deeply culpable. Notwithstanding an excellent 151 in the first innings (which was also his first century since the tour of England four years ago), he should have been caught twice before popping a dolly to midwicket for 11 on that fateful fourth evening. With his departure, it was clear that the fight had gone out of the side that he has now captained to six consecutive losses. With his predecessor, Babar Azam, carrying the can for the batting on this occasion, Masood may be out of excuses if he can’t inspire a fightback over the coming days.

Shoaib Bashir, who turned 21 on Sunday, has a huge future and a pretty impressive recent past, with three five-wicket hauls in ten Tests already, including a matchwinning display against West Indies at Trent Bridge this summer. But the sense that he is a work in progress has been exacerbated by his recent performances, particularly against Sri Lanka at The Oval and in last week’s first Multan Test. He lacked control in the former, then was comprehensively outbowled by his Somerset team-mate Jack Leach in the latter, by seven wickets to one in the final analysis. On a surface that is being tailored towards spin, however, he may find encouragement to deploy a more attacking line outside off, having invariably strayed too straight to the stumps in the first Test – partially, you suspect, as a defensive reflex in deeply inhospitable conditions. Either way, he can be grateful for Pakistan’s policy in this contest, as he would otherwise have been the obvious man to make way for Stokes’ return.

Team news: Pakistan name three spinners; Stokes returns

Change was inevitable after Pakistan’s catastrophic loss last week… but perhaps not of this ilk. First the selection committee was upended, with Aleem Dar, Aaqib Javed and Azhar Ali joining a panel that has now had 26 members since August 2021. Then the bowling attack was purged, with Abrar ill and Shaheen and Naseem both dropped. Babar makes way in the middle-order after a run of 18 innings without a half-century – it’s over to Kamran Ghulam to fill one of the more sizeable voids imaginable – while the bowling attack will be led by the hard-toiling Aamer Jamal and a trio of spinners. These will include the legspinner Zahid, who claimed six wickets in 18.3 overs in his most recent Test, against England at this very venue two years ago, but got launched for 115 runs in the process.

Pakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Shan Masood (capt), 4 Kamran Ghulam, 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 7 Salman Agha, 8 Aamer Jamal, 9 Sajid Khan, 10 Noman Ali, 11 Zahid Mehmood

Stokes is the notable returnee for this second Test, after coming through an extended rehabilitation following his hamstring injury in August. Although there were some reservations about playing him as a frontline seamer in such inhospitable conditions, he has vowed to “sensible” with his workloads – and can at least rely on Leach as an in-form spinning option to provide the lion’s share of the overs. With Matthew Potts slotting in in place of Atkinson, England’s attack has the distinction of fielding three Durham fast bowlers, a prospect that Stokes said would be a “proud moment for the club”.

England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Matthew Potts, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Jack Leach, 11 Shoaib Bashir.

Pitch and conditions: Spin for the win?

If a leopard can’t change its spots, then it’s hard to see how Multan’s strip of rolled mud can be transformed into a spinner’s paradise, just a week after conceding the fourth-highest total ever made in Test cricket. Nevertheless, it is a used surface – which is common enough in white-ball cricket but virtually unheard of in Tests – and it ought to offer more for the bowlers, though quite how much more remains to be seen. Pace and bounce are likely to be short supply once the moisture in the surface has steamed away. Thereafter, it’s a question of what happens to those notable cracks from the first Test.

Stats and trivia

• After his career-best 262 in the first Test, in which he overtook Alastair Cook as England’s leading run-scorer, Root’s average is back above 51 for the first time in more than six years.
• Another victory this week would draw Root level with Shane Warne on 13 wins in Tests in Asia, the most by any visiting player to the region. Leach, with 11 wins in 14 Tests, would move clear of Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting into second place on that same list.
• Abdullah Shafique and Saim Ayub haven’t yet managed a double-figure partnership in eight attempts as Pakistan’s opening pairing. Their current average of 2.87 is by a distance the lowest for any regular partnership in that role.
• Tazeem Ali, the Warwickshire and England Under-19 legspinner, has been bowling in the nets for these two training days while in the country on holiday.

Quotes

“Our instruction to the curator for the first Test was that the ball should spin after the second day. But the pitch didn’t take turn until even the fifth day. Hopefully the ball will begin to take turn on the ninth day.”
Pakistan assistant coach, Azhar Mahmood, explains the rationale behind re-using the same Multan surface

“I’ve obviously got to be sensible. Playing on a used wicket made the decision a little bit easier… but I’m available to bowl, and when I sense the time is right for me to come on and make an impact, there won’t be any doubts in my mind.”
Ben Stokes, England’s captain, is ready to return as a bowler after his hamstring tear