*OFFICIAL* England in Pakistan 2024

[govinda indian fan]

The pitch is a stinker and bowling crap. eagle and naseem bowled absolute trash and arbar o boy he is making naumon ali look like rangana hearth

 

[sayon basak]

The pitch is a stinker and bowling crap. eagle and naseem bowled absolute trash and arbar o boy he is making naumon ali look like rangana hearth

I would say Naseem was far better than others today. Unlucky not to get more wicket. That umpire's call was harsh to him IMO.

 

[govinda indian fan]

I would say Naseem was far better than others today. Unlucky not to get more wicket. That umpire's call was harsh to him IMO.

naseem bowled well with second new ball but was crap with old ball too many hit me balls and also dharmasena the guy makes too many mistakes unlike simon tuffel or aleem dar

 

[danzydab]

Wonder if we could see an 80 ball ton from Jamie Smith.
I do think this pitch will start to break up tommorow

 

[Howe_zat]

I'm eyeing that first Pakistan-Bangladesh test six weeks ago and thinking yup I'll take one of those.

Bangladesh ended day 3 with five first innings wickets in hand and 124 behind.

 

[Hungry Llama]

Seems pretty rare for an england batter to bat for a whole day, spect root was the last 1 also.

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayer]

Definitely England’s day, albeit with the caveat that batting looks extremely easy on this placid surface and the chances of winning the Test are still fairly slim. Not that England are exactly Boycott-ing it at the moment, but I think they’ll try to get to Pakistan’s total before really swinging for the fences tomorrow to try to force a result

 

[govinda indian fan]

Definitely England’s day, albeit with the caveat that batting looks extremely easy on this placid surface and the chances of winning the Test are still fairly slim. Not that England are exactly Boycott-ing it at the moment, but I think they’ll try to get to Pakistan’s total before really swinging for the fences tomorrow to try to force a result

Think carse will hit 25 ball 50

 

[PaulLennon]

Eng will get 700-750 by mid 2nd session. Pakistan will get 200 odd. Leach-Bashir will get through them.

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayer]

Think carse will hit 25 ball 50

Might be a while before he comes out to bat lol

 

[GIMH]

History tells me Root and brook will go quickly tomorrow but Smith and Woakes will put another partnership together

Get to parity than assess.

 

[Apex Predator]

Pitch will definitely break up on day 4-5.

Pakistani pace attack has been disappointing. But Abrar takes the cake. As expected he has been c*p to say the least. Not international standard simply.

Noman and Zahid Mehmood would have done better.

 

[BazBall21]

Even if it's very likely which avenue they go down, still intrigued to see how England go about it tomorrow. One would suspect they will go for a quick declaration and probably send Pakistan in by lunch. I can see the arguments for that and going for more of an innings victory route in the hope there will be some spin on day 5 and a struggling team will be knackered and deflated.

As well as maximizing time for a limited attack and stand-in captain, they might also not want the bowlers to potentially spend a decent amount of time batting. It's pretty hot out there.

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayer]

Even if it's very likely which avenue they go down, still intrigued to see how England go about it tomorrow. One would suspect they will go for a quick declaration and probably send Pakistan in by lunch. I can see the arguments for that and going for more of an innings victory route in the hope there will be some spin on day 5 and a struggling team will be knackered and deflated.

As well as maximizing time for a limited attack and stand-in captain, they might also not want the bowlers to potentially spend a decent amount of time batting. It's pretty hot out there.

Duckett spoke about earning the right to crank it up to 5th gear, hoping to get the lead to 200 and then trying to get them out from then on when the pitch hopefully starts to break up. Ideally Root, Brook and Smith stick around for a bit longer so that when Woakes and the rest of the bowlers are in they have a decent lead and can effectively play T20 innings without worrying about sticking in

 

[wpdavid]

Duckett spoke about earning the right to crank it up to 5th gear, hoping to get the lead to 200 and then trying to get them out from then on when the pitch hopefully starts to break up. Ideally Root, Brook and Smith stick around for a bit longer so that when Woakes and the rest of the bowlers are in they have a decent lead and can effectively play T20 innings without worrying about sticking in

Yes, that makes much more sense than having a quick thrash and sending Pakistan back in with a less than 100 lead. Admitedly I haven't following it closely today, but my impression is that they've gone at 5 an over without taking unnecessary risks. More of the same must surely be the way to go. Of course, it's easy to become greedy from here, and there are reasons why we don't see scores of 700+ in test cricket. But 490 for 3 on a road is a pretty handy launching pad, so who knows,

 

[BazBall21]

I would declare a session and a half in. Give a limited attack and inexperienced captain plenty of runs, and also plenty of time.

 

[Howe_zat]

Unless the scoring rate goes bananas, or they've run out of bastsmen and are trying to squeeze a few extra runs out of Shoiab Bashir or something, I don't think there's much value in declaring before tea. There's no point in leaving runs to the 4th innings to score, because it's always going to be slower and harder chasing a total than setting one up. When England were in Pakistan in 2015 they nearly won a game on a dead track, but had a small chase to overcome in the dying light so Wahab Riaz started bowling 15-minute overs.

That said, despite the scoreline as it reads now, there's a good chance England don't get to pick their score anyway. The bookies' line for the second innings is 679.5, which isn't much of a declaration-worthy lead.

 

[Molehill]

The later they leave the declaration the more tired Pakistan will be and the greater the chance the pitch starts to break up. Batting till Tea could leave the Pakistani batsman as sitting ducks.

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayer]

Unless the scoring rate goes bananas, or they've run out of bastsmen and are trying to squeeze a few extra runs out of Shoiab Bashir or something, I don't think there's much value in declaring before tea. There's no point in leaving runs to the 4th innings to score, because it's always going to be slower and harder chasing a total than setting one up. When England were in Pakistan in 2015 they nearly won a game on a dead track, but had a small chase to overcome in the dying light so Wahab Riaz started bowling 15-minute overs.

That said, despite the scoreline as it reads now, there's a good chance England don't get to pick their score anyway. The bookies' line for the second innings is 679.5, which isn't much of a declaration-worthy lead.

If everyone bats to their current Test (or FC in the case of Carse) average (which may be selling them short given how flat the deck is), we’ll put on another 150 plus whatever Root and Brook make and extras, 700 plus is well within their capability

 

[ashley bach]

Rumour has it there's a pancake cooking competition on this deck once the test has finished.