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

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.