England Crushing Pakistan’s Bowling Attack

Milestone man Joe Root and Ben Duckett led England’s charge in the opening Test against Pakistan as the visitors smashed 136 runs in just 25 overs by Lunch to reduce the deficit to 324. The session turned out to be very memorable for Root in particular as he went past Alastair Cook to become England’s leading run getter in Tests.

The session kickstarted with Zak Crawley sending an early statement, continuing from where he had left as he drove Shaheen Afridi through the covers. But Pakistan’s leading quick eventually got his man as the batter hit one straight at midwicket to depart for a well-made 85. Duckett then walked out to bat, having not opened the innings the previous day due to a thumb injury. He showed no signs of discomfort and got going straightaway to put Pakistan on the backfoot.

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The left-hander hit Abrar Ahmed for two back-to-back boundaries and then targeted him again for three boundaries in an over to race to 34 off just 26. Root then found the boundary off Naseem Shah and eventually helped himself to a half-century just before the drinks break. Duckett too brought up his landmark shortly after to enhance his record against Pakistan further. The home side kept ringing in the changes but to no avail as England kept the bowling attack at bay.

The Pakistani pacers did find some reverse swing at one point and there were signs of encouragement too when Aamer Jamal got one to hit Root on the pads. But ball-tracking confirmed that it would have anyway missed the stumps. In the same over, Root played a delightful drive that took him past Cook’s tally which has now ensured that there are only four more players in the history of the game ahead of him in the overall list. With over 300 runs still to play with, Pakistan will be hoping for reverse swing to sway the game in the post-lunch session.