England v Pakistan, 2nd Test, Manchester, day 2 - England are flying high in Manchester

You can admire Misbah-ul-Haq for his man management and stabilizing-the-team abilities, but when it comes to innovative-and tactics-oriented-captaincy, Misbah is nowhere near even Aamer Sohail let alone Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Mushtaq Mohammad, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram.

Today, Misbah’s captaincy was at its worst state. The world witnessed how Yasir Shah delivered the ball on a fuller length in and around the offstump to entice the batsmen on the front foot for a drive and more often, he found the edge of the bat, but neither was he provided with a silly point nor short leg by Misbah. Younis Khan is not anymore the slip fielder of four or five years back, but has lost his reflexes a lot and someone like Azhar Ali or Shaan Masood would have been ideal in that place instead of Younis.

Wahab Riaz should have been used as a bowler to bowl in short bursts rather than a regular one. Wahab loves to bowl aggressively and he is at his menacing best when utilized in short spells. And even if you wish to utilize his vim, set an aggressive field for him. There should be at least two slips and short leg for Wahab to fetch wickets.

I am not sure why Azhar Ali was used against Ben Stokes, who just came to the crease and why the offside field was kept vacant when Stokes was not yet set at the crease. A fullish delivery from Yasir was cracked through the vacant space on the offside for four and Pakistan time and again failed to create pressure on England due to some mediocre captaincy from Misbah.

Rahat Ali wasted the new ball. He bowled in patches – good and bad and bad and good. The length was on the goodish side rather back of a length while Amir also struggled to pull back his length. I guess the push ups at Lord’s made the boys a bit tired.

England cashed in the way a professional team should do. They showed no mercy towards Pakistan and punished them heavily. Joe Root brought up his double hundred without any hassle and this guy is shaping up to be one of the best in the world while the rest of England batsmen made Misbah pay for his poor captaincy.

Pakistan’s reply was shocking. The top order just threw their wickets away. Mohammad Hafeez received a good delivery, but the rest of the batsmen exhibited madness – Azhar Ali committed to the shot too early and was in no position to play the stroke, Younis Khan’s jumping dance came to a bizarre end as he chased down a rank-wide delivery on the leg side while Rahat Ali, who is not even qualified enough to bat at number 10 position, displayed some circus show and departed soon. I don’t think it was necessary to send a nightwatchman.  

England are flying high in Manchester.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar