Any ambition England may have had about forcing their way back into the second Test were firmly dispelled when they were bowled out before lunch in a vintage display of good old Chuckle Brothers deckchair batting. Two hours have all but cost them the match. On a surface that was far from spiteful, with Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow going well, they envisaged a lead, perhaps enough to make life as tricky for Pakistan as they had managed in Abu Dhabi. Instead the batting imploded against a mixture of wonderful, sustained left-arm pace bowling from Wahab Riaz, and mystery spin from Yasir Shah, the most important ingredient missing from the Pakistan team in the first Test.
Resuming the third day at 182 for three, they reached 206 before the dismissal of Root for 88 precipitated a calamitous procession with the last seven wickets falling for 36 in 18 overs. All out then for 242, it gave Pakistan a lead of 136, which by the close had been extended to 358, as Pakistan reached 222 for three: England have never scored more than 332 in the fourth innings to win a Test match.
In the process of making an unbeaten 71, Younis Khan – Pakistan’s champion batsman – became the first of his countrymen to reach 9,000 Test runs, the 14th player to do so: only Brian Lara, who reached the landmark in 101 Tests, has done so in fewer than his 103 matches. Thus far he has added 139 for the fourth wicket with Misbah-ul-Haq, 87 not out.
If there was a good deal of ineptitude within the England batting ranks, a tendency to play a one-size-fits-all type of attacking game since the summer in circumstances that occasionally demand something more discreet, then this should take nothing away from the excellence of Wahab.
For an hour and a half in the heat he ran in, hitting the bat hard, over and occasionally round the wicket. It was a simple strategy he employed: keep the ball up towards driving length, dangle the ball outside off stump, shape it away with a little reverse swing and hook the fish. On the face of it, neither Root nor Jos Buttler need have played at the balls that they edged to the keeper, but unless your name is Alastair Cook it is not so simple to ignore time and again.
Root had been playing with freedom and saw runs while Buttler, totally without confidence, was just keen to try and feel the bat on the ball. The waft that did for Ben Stokes had no such mitigation. Wahab eventually conceded his end after a spell of 9-5-15-3 that had blown a hole in the innings.
For a while, Yasir bowled like someone trying to force the issue rather than letting his skill and the pitch get the job done. Maybe he was a little stiff from his overs on the previous day, a residue of the back spasm that kept him out of the first Test.
Root and Bairstow had handled him pretty well, although the latter’s penchant for the cut threatened to undo things for him. There was to be a fortunate escape for him as well, when he edged to Younis at slip, who, despite being back on his heels, appeared, even on replay, to take a clean catch. It was referred to Chris Gaffaney, the third umpire, who thought otherwise and Bairstow, 40 then, survived.
Gaffaney was central to a bizzare set of circumstances later, when Mark Wood edged what appeared to be a catch, also to Younis at slip, only for the umpire Paul Reiffel to query whether it might have been a bump ball, suggesting that he had no doubt it had been edged. The third umpire confirmed there was no bump ball and therefore Wood was given out. At this stage, at Stuart Broad’s instigation, Wood asked for a review, intimating that although he hit the ground, he had not edged it. Gaffeney, without technical assistance beyond an audio feed, again disagreed and Wood had to go. Yasir finished with 4 for 93.
Already, then, there is talk of how changes might be made for the third Test in Sharjah that starts next Sunday, although it is usually best to await the outcome before rushing to judgment. But, on the face of it, Ian Bell will be under particular scrutiny when England bat again, as will Buttler, whose dismal run of scores continues. When he edged Wahab behind, he looked totally crestfallen and it appears to have affected his keeping for, when Pakistan batted again, he dropped a relatively simple legside chance in Broad’s first over. Towards the end of the day, he pulled out of a chance from Misbah that bisected him and first slip, the keeper’s catch.
Buttler is an immensely talented cricketer, but currently is clearly feeling the strain, and, unless something dramatic happens in the second innings, there must be a strong case for allowing Bairstow, who batted with determination for his 46 before Yasir worked him out, to keep and to bring in James Taylor in place of Buttler. At the moment, they can ill afford to lose Bell’s experience.
There is too much reliance on Cook and Root, who, in their different ways, exemplify how to play in these conditions. If England were to prosper, they needed Root to play a key innings as had Cook in the first Test. His dismissal, for 88, was annoying in that regard, and in the sense that on five occasions this year, with scores of 83, 98, 84, 85 and now this, he has failed to convert to a century.
Sometimes, however, we make too much of three figures. When someone is making those sort of scores in an England performance such as it has been, it is not he who is failing.
