Pakistan ditch stardust, win a home Test after more than 3 years

Pakistan wins a home Test after more than 3 years (Image AP)

The biggest talking point ahead of the second Test between Pakistan and England in Multan was the axing of Babar Azam. Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah, too, were dropped, but Babar is the biggest star in Pakistan cricket. Pakistan cricket was in free fall. They came to this Test on the heels of six consecutive defeats under Shan Masood - two of them were against Bangladesh at home.

In the first Test against England, they lost after posting a 550-plus total in their first innings. Another defeat, and they would have been starting into the abyss. A defeat after dropping their star players would have exponentially magnified the level of criticism. Pakistan no longer had the licence to fail.

The first thing that the home team did was to play on a re-used surface. The Multan ‘highway’ was transformed into a result pitch that would assist the spinners. Pakistan picked three tweakers in their playing XI - two of them, Noman Ali and Sajid Khan, combined to take all 20 England wickets in the game. Sajid returned with 7/111 in the first innings, Noman claimed 8/46 in the second, as he ran through England batting. Zahid Mahmood, the third spinner, only bowled six overs in the game.

Sajid, the off-spinner, is 31 years old. But it was only his ninth Test. Noman, 38, played his 16th game at this level. The two complemented each other well, and as the ball started to turn, the England batsmen lost their nerve. Under intense pressure, Pakistan chose horses for courses and it turned out to be a masterstroke.

Bazball is a fancy name for England’s mostly one-dimensional cricket. On crumbling pitches, against the turning ball, it struggles to look beyond sweeps and reverse-sweeps. England fell prey to their obsession on the fourth day, losing eight wickets in less than two hours. They didn't have a Plan B.

Pakistan didn't mind. It was their first victory in a home Test since 2021. The monkey was finally off their back. Masood thanked his teammates after securing his first win as captain. “For the boys to step in, a lot has happened this past week,” he said at the post-match presentation. “We came up with a strategy to get 20 wickets and we made it happen. (A winless span of) three years and 11 months creates hunger.”

Pakistan’s spin duo proved to be the match-winners, but the biggest takeaway for them from this match was Kamran Ghulam. The 29-year-old came in as Babar's replacement and scored a century in the first innings on his debut. Pakistan ditched stardust and embraced the collective. They were handsomely rewarded.