Good on PAK to get the win. At the end of the day nothing apart from making winning a regular habit can improve the standard of and interest in cricket. No amount of coaches can be a substitute for this. We need to win 2-0 and take this form forward.
Good on Nauman and Fawad. Will watch the highlights to see how Nauman got his wickets. I didn’t rate him on the basis of his bowling before today/footage from domestics. Hopefully he can make me come across as a fool in his next few series, which I would rather gladly accept.
Opening batsmen are regressing with each series. Younus’ headache and problem to solve. Abid should, at the very least, fare reasonably at home even if the followers have resigned themselves to his inability abroad.
Pacers seem adamant to ‘outshine’ opening batsmen. Out of words at this stage.
Disappointed that neither team was able to get wickets with reverse swing, despite getting good shape. And the ball was certainly moving a healthy amount. Some of them were not full enough, some were finishing the ball outside leg stump and some were bowling the same ball throughout the over instead of setting the batsmen up. Rizwan navigated some of Nortje and Ngidi’s indippers very well, despite the sharp movement and a smart field.
However, feel that Steyn could have put on an Asian reverse swing masterclass with the way this ball was moving, let alone PAK’s pedigreed names.
Babar Azam... before the start of the 1st Test people kept calling for a rank-turner but also expected Babar to be the best batsmen. Was a bit premature on him.
For those who followed the SRL tour of PAK in 2019, did SRL have their spinner who has taken all those wickets against ENG? If so, did Babar get to bat against him/other spinners? How did he fare? Similar question about the BAN tour of PAK. I feel he’s got enough positive experiences and guile to resolve his shortcomings soon.
Picking spin out of the hand and then smothering the turn by getting to its pitch is something that can be learnt. Younus’ headache again.
But overall, Babar has some long days in front of him in the nets if he wants to get a grip on spin before it becomes psychological. Ideally, he would have Yasir, Nauman, Sajid and all those flash boys of PSL, bowling at him over the next few days/off season with all of their fanciful varieties. Don’t know if this will be practicable during Covid-19 times.
