Pakistan’s Azan Awais ducks a bouncer (AP Photo)
Pakistan’s struggles in England have deepened after their batting collapsed for 110 in the first innings of the Lord’s Test, prompting a brutal assessment from former England captain Michael Vaughan . Pakistan arrived at Lord’s hoping for a response after being beaten by an innings and 53 runs in the opening Test. So you’re only going to be out there for 40 to 50 overs, so you give everything in every spell, you keep going to Joe Root saying, Err, I’ll bowl another one. After Pakistan’s innings ended inside 38 overs, England remain firmly in control of the second Test and have put the visitors under immense pressure to produce a turnaround in the remainder of the match.
Because they know there are wickets out there,” Vaughan said on the BBC Test Match Special, and not only that, I think as a bowler, I think they’re all queuing up to bowl.
There are so many wickets out there,” said Vaughan. The return of regular captain Babar Azam had also provided some optimism, but his comeback did little to change the visitors’ fortunes. “I’ll be brutally honest. The England bowlers aren’t being challenged at all. And this Pakistan batting lineup is possibly the easiest batting lineup I’ve seen in a long time to bowl to. The former England skipper continued his criticism by questioning whether Pakistan’s current batting unit was even of Test-match standard. “I think they all know that Pakistan aren’t going to get big scores.
He then made a particularly harsh comparison, suggesting Pakistan’s batting resembled a second-division county side rather than an international Test team. “It’s so easy. They’re still doing a good job, and they’re still looking very threatening. And I think this bowling attack, the way they’re bowling, will challenge better batting lineups if they continue in this fashion. But this is Pakistan batting. Is it second division county cricket? There’s no way that they are batting in any standard to say that, that is a Test match batting lineup,” he added.