Pakistan v England, 3rd Test, Day 2 - James Taylor looked adept against the Pakistani spinners

Scoring runs on this Sharjah track has not been an easy task. Pakistan found it tough yesterday and they succumbed to the pressure created by James Anderson and Stuart Broad. The response of the English batsmen was dour and it was all about occupying the crease rather than fetching runs at a healthy run rate. The Pakistani pacers were good, but not sharper enough to set jitters in the English batting line-up.

The track was slow and low while the outfield was not fast enough and thus, the contest was all about blocking-and-then-leave-the-ball-and-then-block-again-and-then-hit-occasional-boundaries – an exhibition of patience and resilience which hardly deters one’s attention, but if you can’t enjoy such battles then you feed on lollipops like IPL, BPL and BBL. Test cricket is for the men and not crying babies.  

Alastair Cook and Ian Bell’s resistance frustrated Pakistan, but just after lunch, Yasir Shah dismissed Cook for the third time in this series and when Rahat Ali dismissed the dangerous Joe Root, an English collapse was knocking at the doors. Ian Bell dug deep and along with James Taylor arrested the collapse brilliantly.

Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar and co tested the Bell and Taylor duo immensely, but patience was the winner and when Bell got out, England’s safety was ensured by Taylor. This Taylor has been an inspirational pick. He handled Yasir Shah better than any other batsmen over the last one year.

Taylor’s ability to watch the ball early, backward-and-forward movement, the habit of pivoting on the back foot to execute the cut and late cut have aided him to fetch enough runs against Yasir. Moreover, I think, Taylor’s short-height helps him to tackle the spinners well. I have seen that the batsmen who are shorter-in-height, tackles the spinners better than the taller ones.

I think, Pakistan should have taken the second new ball a bit later. The introduction of the second new ball has helped to ease the pressure a lot, but overall, the day belongs to England.   

Thank You

Faisal Caesar