A day of sporting contrast.

[Mo Gosfield]

That was Bairstow's undoing. If he'd been playing his natural game he would have dispatched that delivery into the stands. Instead, it was a pretty tame dismissal. We've got a lot of batsmen who naturally try and score at a fast pace. It's very difficult to strike that balance between playing your natural game and digging in for the long haul.

I agree, I'm not too disappointed with the result TBH. The England team has become very watchable over the last year or so.

The whole attitude in Test Cricket has changed in recent years. Players can no longer dig in for the long haul. They play loosely from the start and expect to blaze away at four an over or more. Captains now dispense with a third man and every edge past or through the slips is four runs.
Batting technique is not as tight as it used to be and players chase wide deliveries all the time now, rather than using judgement to leave the ball. Very few players bat for four or five sessions these days and trying to save a game by crease occupation is a lost art.
It is all very enjoyable for the spectators, runs flowing and wickets falling but some of the purists shake their heads in despair at the cheap wickets thrown away. A lot of Tests get nowhere near a 5th day now and some struggle to reach the 4th day. I wonder how far away 4 day Test Cricket will be?

 

[studio150]

How many times has a team scored that many in a 4th innings to win a test?

over 30

 

[Mo Gosfield]

over 30

...by batting properly and digging in.
It wasn't as if England were racing against the clock. They had the best part of two days to bat. They could have wrested the psychological advantage away from Pakistan by a lengthy and successful run chase, taking the game well into the 5th day. Getting bowled out inside a day was a tame and insipid performance. The most damning indictment was that Pakistan didn't have to work very hard for a lot of the wickets.

 

[Saturn]

The thing which has annoyed me about this whole reshuffle is that Root has been moved to 3. He averages in the 70s at 5 and in the 50s at 4. His average at 3 is about 30. I still don’t agree with them moving him from 5 to 4, let alone from 4 to 3.

James Vince on the other hand actually plays at 3 in his domestic cricket, he understands what is required of a number 3 and has been picked based on his form at number 3. So why not put him there? I think he has the talent to cement a place in the team; he hasn’t set the world on fire (yet) but is clearly a very classy player who I think will come good.

The selection of Ballance was another thing which irked me – it seems like a backwards step. He’d not made a decent score until his recent century and all of a sudden he gets called up, skipping over Borthwick who most saw as the obvious replacement for Compton. If Ballance has sorted his technique out he may well go onto score runs, but it won’t convince me that the basis on which his inclusion was presided on was poor.

Based on the squad they've picked my line up would be Cook, Hales, Vince, Ballance, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Woakes, Rashid, Broad, Anderson.

 

[KingKev]

Pakistan has the highest winning percentage in cricket over the past 22 months.

Pakistan (64.29%) 14 Tests: 9 wins, 3 draws, 2 losses
Pakistan have now moved second in ICC rankings.
Pakistan are resurgent and play as a team under are under good old leadership. I expect the serious to continue to be Competitive. A good challenge.
Win this and it will be aspicey Australia v Pakistan Series this winter.

They are doing very well and Yasir's now rated #1 test bowler?
Playing home games in UAE helps with those stats though. Only NZ have come close to giving Pakistan a game out there recently haven't they ? (admittedly England's 0-2 defeat should arguably have been 1-1)

 

[KingKev]

And who will be dropped? Assuming Anderson and Stokes come in for Ball and Finn, are they really going to drop Woakes, our best player at Lord's? The other option is Vince, but that's going back to the old days of not giving players a fair crack in the team.

We rarely play two spinners at home these days: was the last time Monty and Swann at Cardiff in 2009? And the time before that? I don't know but it wasn't recent

Probably Ballance. I'm with you, on form Woakes would get in before Broad at the moment, but equally leaving Braod out is lunacy given he can win a test on his own in an inspired hour.
The argument to leave out Ballance would run something like '6 bowlers gives us the chance to break Jimmy and Stokes in gently and gives cover if one breaks down'.
I don't agree with it - going in with just 4 specialist batters, two of whom are out of position, and relying on your keeper at 6 and 5 all-rounders might be an inspired selection on some shirtfront in India, or if you have Kallis at #3, but again it's not playing the percentages for this particular series against this opposition.

 

[knocky1]

They are doing very well and Yasir's now rated #1 test bowler?
Playing home games in UAE helps with those stats though. Only NZ have come close to giving Pakistan a game out there recently haven't they ? (admittedly England's 0-2 defeat should arguably have been 1-1)

Pakistan has similar dry, sandy pitches and more fervent supporters than the ex pat fervent supporters in the UAE? ? ?So possibly doesn't give an advantage. Playing England and Australia away will let us see how good they are.

 

[KingKev]

Pakistan has similar dry, sandy pitches and more fervent supporters than the ex pat fervent supporters in the UAE? ? ?So possibly doesn't give an advantage. Playing England and Australia away will let us see how good they are.

I'm no expert on conditions / pitches around the world... But you could argue the crowd thing the other way around - UAE games sparsely attended = no pressure. Playing at home in an atmosphere somewhere between a carnival and a riot = massive pressure. Add in neutral umpires and DRS and I suspect Pakistan's record in UAE is better than it might be 'at home'....??

But agree, if they do well in England and Oz then they will be recognised as a very good side indeed.