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Pakistan's win at Lord's sets up a terrific series

Roar Rookie
21st July, 2016
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The Pakistan victory at the home of cricket was as exhilarating as it was unexpected for the masses.

They were not anticipating such a good result in the Test series against England, let alone in the first Test at Lord’s.

Still, in the last six years or so the Test team under the leadership of Misbah-ul-Haq has been performing consistently to earn a spot in the top four in the world Test rankings.

Of course there were some former experts, especially Mohammad Yousaf, who had doubts in Misbah and his team’s ability to perform outside UAE. They appear to have been laid to rest after the 75 run victory over England and a fine century made by the skipper in the first Test.

Now that the opening Test is done and dusted; what is in store for the cricket fans in the rest of the series?

It would be naïve to think that Pakistan team will have a walk in the park in the coming matches.

Don’t forget that England bowling was depleted in the Lord’s Test due to the absence of their spearhead, James Anderson. Anderson, along with Adil Rashid and Ben Stokes will be making a comeback in the second Test at Old Trafford.

The inclusion of the English leggie Rashid is a bit of a gamble, but as far as Anderson and Stokes are concerned, the pair add firepower and depth to the English bowling, which might give a pretty torrid time to the Pakistani batsmen.

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The Pakistani openers Mohammad Hafeez and Shan Masood weren’t able to play confident knocks in the first Test, in spite of making scores of 40 and 24 respectively. The team management must be putting their heads together to solve the opening issue.

History suggests that after Saeed Anwar and Amir Sohail no Pakistani opener has played a big innings in England. Of course they will not be making any changes in the second Test – no one tinkers with the winning combination.

But the fact remains that opening is an issue which needs to be addressed to beat England in their own backyard.

Interestingly, India’s tour to England in 2014 started in almost the same fashion. After the drawn first Test at Nottingham, India won the second Test at Lord’s by 95 runs. The Indian team was leading the five-match series 1-0 but the Englishmen knocked them over in the remaining three Tests played at Southampton, Old Trafford, and Oval.

End result: England won the Test series 3-1.

There is a lesson to be learnt from that series for the Pakistan team. A winning start doesn’t guarantee a series victory.

Alastair Cook and his team will come hard in the second Test considering the English captain is a little irked by the Pakistan team celebration, at the end of first Test.

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Pakistan cricket supporter’s worst fear will be the complacency creeping in the squad. Over the years, one of the major strengths of Misbah’s XI has been to keep a low profile and concentrate more on cricket than all the fuss around it. One is afraid that it may have changed after the team’s press-ups at the end of the match in front of the Lord’s pavilion.

One can truly understand that the whole scene was more than a mere showmanship. It exhibited team spirit, which is fair enough; but the problem is that ‘gossip-mongers’ are associating the whole incident with something else that sadly has nothing to do with the game. Some have even tried to ‘politicise’ this show and termed dangerous to the democratic system in Pakistan, which is ludicrous, to say the least.

Surely, Misbah is wise enough to understand how things are trending on the social media. Therefore, there is no need for the cricket team, which is embarked on an important tour to get involved in any domestic controversy back home.

The post-match celebrations are good as one off thing, but if the team continues with this ‘exercise’ then it will do nothing but harm them in the long run. Perhaps the old fashioned huddle can still do the trick for Misbah’s team.

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