Pakistan cricket team faces a 74 runs defeat in the first Test of the England tour of Pakistan 2022 which faces a lot of criticism since the first day of the match. The first match has been scheduled to play on December 1 at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi.
Babar Azam on Defeat Against England
Winning the toss England opted to bat first and scored 657 runs for 10 wickets where Zak Crawley, Duckett, Ollie Pope, and Harry Brook scored centuries on the first day. James Anderson scored 6 runs in the first innings.
Pakistan ended up their inning with 579 runs where Babar Azam scored the team’s best; scored 136 runs from 168 balls for which former England captain Michael Vaughan praised him which received mixed reactions from cricket fans.
Seeing England scoring over 500 runs on the opening day itself, the PCB received plenty of criticism for the way they prepared the wicket.
In the second inning, England scored 264 runs for 7 wickets and declared whereas Pakistan scored 268 runs after losing all their 10 wickets. With a difference of 74 runs, England won the first Test and leads the 3-match Test series which is a part of ICC WTC23.
Post the defeat, even skipper Babar Azam admitted being unhappy with the pitch as he didn’t get the sort of wicket that he wanted in the match.
“Yes my input was there in the preparation of the pitch and we made it clear what we wanted but we didn’t get that because of the weather or whatever reason. But we wanted a track with some turn for the spinners,” Babar told a post-match conference on Monday.
Babar also didn’t shy away from praising England for the manner in which they batted throughout the match.
“We were expecting they would continue to play like that against us. I think it becomes difficult for a captain when your bowlers are not hitting the right areas and runs are being scored on both sides of the wicket. But full credit to them the way they batted in both innings,” he said.
With a total of 5 wickets in the 1st Test, James Anderson becomes the leading wicket-taker of the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23 with 55 wickets under his name followed by Ollie Robinson with 49 wickets.
“It is never easy to come back after the opposition scores 500 on the first day but I thought we batted well and came close to their total but in the second innings our batters didn’t live up to the responsibility,” he said.
The match gets into a huge drama towards the end where England was in need of 1 wicket to win the match while Mohammad Ali and Naseem Shah made a stand for nearly 8 overs and plans to draw the match.
Pakistan also seems to handle time-wasting statics by delaying the start of the match after the drinks break. With roughly 35 minutes maximum left for the closure of the game, Mohammad Ali has gone off to the dressing room for a restroom break which delayed the game.
At the end, Jack Leach dismissed Naseem Shah and bagged the 10th wicket of Pakistan’s second inning and led England to win the game by 74 runs.
“I thought we were very much in the match till after lunch today to win the match unfortunately we lost back-to-back wickets and that didn’t help. But Anderson and Robinson bowled outstandingly well,” he said.
The second Test match of the series will be played on December 09 at Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan while the last Test will be played on December 17.
