Humbled hosts are shown how to play in their own conditions
Pakistan’s rookies taught England a harsh lesson with bat and ball, writes Tim Wigmore at Lord’s
Anew Test summer is invigorating and cathartic. Especially when it is at Lord’s. Especially when there is a new national selector. And especially when, after another winter of Ashes ignominy, it is imbued with the promise of starting afresh.
For Mark Stoneman, it took only 12 balls of the first morning of the Test summer for all this early optimism to give way to trepidation: the time that it took Mohammad Abbas to seam a delivery back through his gate. It all felt like a prelude to a match dominated by English-style seamers – and it was, just the English-style seamers who dominated all played for Pakistan.
For all England’s preoccupation with pace, the best bowler in the match was Abbas, who was actually slower than James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Throughout the game, 84 per cent of Abbas’s balls were on a good length – the highest for any seamer in the match. Perhaps not since Mohammad Asif in 2010 have England been so outplayed at home by another bowler with English-style qualities.
Midway through the second afternoon, England were in the familiar position of needing their bowlers to make up for their batting foibles. Anderson induced an edge from Babar Azam; Alastair Cook, at first slip, dived to his right and spilled the ball. It was not an easy chance – but it was one of six that England missed. Pakistan took every single one.
Babar, then on 10, would add another 58 runs – driving sweetly and, more than anything, leaving the ball assiduously. When Pakistan overhauled England’s first-innings 184, it had taken them 7.2 more overs to get there – but they had only lost three wickets. From showing England how to bowl in classical English conditions, now they showed how to bat in them.
In England’s second innings, Stoneman was batting again – and battling again. Then a leg-break from Shadab Khan scuttled low and did not stop until it had thudded into Stoneman’s stumps as he was marooned on the back foot. Facing 11 years of spin in county cricket had not prepared Stoneman for Shadab. And in this game, English spin once again failed to deliver a single wicket.
Dom Bess, it is true, was only a 20-year-old off-spinner on debut, and batted puckishly. But Shadab is a year younger and generated 65 per cent more spin on each ball, according to Cricviz. Bess is the 12th England Test spinner since Graeme Swann retired; Stoneman is the 12th English Test opener since Andrew Strauss retired. Not a single Test cricketer to debut under Trevor Bayliss has truly established themselves in the side.
England arrived for the fourth day not entirely devoid of hope after a counterpunching century partnership on the third evening between Jos Buttler and Bess. At 11.27 on the fourth day, Mohammad Amir curled a ball into Bess’s off stump. It had taken Pakistan only 25 deliveries to eviscerate what was left of England’s batting, marrying swing with the second new ball with the sheer sense that this was the time to bend the game decisively to their will.
Yet it was more a stereotypical South African performance than a stereotypical Pakistani display. And really, it should have been no surprise at all: while Pakistan have been relegated to the early season berth in the English summer and just a two-match series, they have now won eight of the past 11 Tests between the sides.
As Amir led the team off the field, Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s South African coach, allowed himself a broad grin.
He had already overseen a stirring victory at Lord’s two years ago with an old team. Now, he had secured a more emphatic victory with a new side.