Reasons Why Pakistan Can Win The Second Test Against England

(Yasir Shah celebrating
Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

Pakistan lost the first Test by three wickets after Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes staged a brilliant fightback in the fourth innings.

Many former players raised concerns over Azhar Ali’s captaincy. The team faced a lot of criticism for letting England off the hook after dominating the majority of the Test match. But this Pakistan side has a lot of potential, and according to their head coach Misbah-ul-Haq, his team has the flair of making a comeback in the Test series.

Misbah, in a column published on the Pakistan Cricket Board's website, wrote. "It is easy to curse yourself when you have lost.” 

“But, we should remember that we were right on top until pretty much the last session of the game.”

“We will do our best to come back in this series, which I really believe this team is capable of doing."

So what makes Misbah remain adamant about this Pakistan side? Let us look at some of the reasons.

1) In-form Top Order: One of the stars of the first Test for Pakistan, Shan Masood played an outstanding innings in the first Test. His career-best 156 set up the match brilliantly for Pakistan. He showed brilliant temperament to bat in English conditions. His opening partner Abid Ali, however, did not have a great outing in Manchester as he could only manage 36 runs in the Test. But during his short stay at the crease, he looked pretty confident playing his shots. The leader of Pakistan batting line-up, Babar Azam scored a fine fifty in the first innings and looked in exquisite touch. The team will be hopeful that a Babar Azam master-class awaits us in the upcoming Test. 

2) Spin Web of Yasir Shah: Yasir Shah bowled his heart out in the first Test. He fought till the very end to keep Pakistan in the hunt but failed to get them home. The leggie picked eight wickets in the Test and also made contributions with the bat in Pakistan’s second innings. He looked in a great rhythm, bowled excellent line and length and was able to generate turn and bounce. Looking at trouble England batsmen have facing spin will give him confidence in producing yet another strong performance in Southampton.

 

3) Fiery Pace attack: The likes of Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Abbas bowled brilliant spells with the new ball under pacer friendly conditions. Though they lost all their gains in the second innings, giving away too many scoring opportunities to Buttler and Woakes, on a given day they can destroy any batting line up in the world. Pakistan have brought an entire army of fast bowlers (8) in the squad. There are a lot of options to choose from. Given the inexperience showed by their pacers on Day 4 of the first Test, an experienced Wahab Riaz can make the cut in the squad for the Southampton Test.

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4) Absence of Ben Stokes: There is nothing on the cricket field that Ben Stokes cannot do. The talismanic all-rounder will be heading to New Zealand due to family reasons and will miss the remainder of the Test series against Pakistan. Not long ago, in the second Test against West Indies, Stokes scored the slowest hundred of his career off 256 balls. Given the tough conditions, It was the right way to go. Contrastingly in the second innings when England required to score quickly, he smashed the fastest Test half-century by an England opener. Also, he turned the tides for his side with the ball on the final day picking up the crucial wicket of the dangerous Jermain Blackwood just before tea. Stokes, a game changer on his own will be a massive miss for England.