- England are against it in their bid to claim victory in the second Test in Multan
- Bashir bowled well and took four wickets in England’s second innings
- His partner, Jack Leach, is closer to the finished article and also impressed
On a turning delivery in the second innings it was important that Shoaib Bashir showed what he can do for England – and I thought he certainly did that.
He has had a difficult tour in Pakistan so far, with people saying Jack Leach should be seen as England’s No.1 spinner again. But Bashir had a good day on Thursday, taking four wickets and showing he can bowl that line of attack outside the off-stump.
Ever since he played for England, I always thought he could bowl well to left-handers. He bowls the ball beautifully with drop. The problem with Bashir that I have been talking about constantly is that he bowls too straight to right-handers.
England would argue that he is not being played on a spinning pitch and if he is, he will bowl outside off. To be fair to Bashir, that’s what he did on Thursday. I thought he got his lines pretty good.
However, his best bowling was again against the left-handers. Ben Stokes is one of the best captains of spin we’ve had and he got the right men in the right places, with all three of Bashir’s wickets coming in slip and gully against left-handers.
Shoaib Bashir showed what he can do for England in an impressive second innings of bowling
Ben Stokes backed his spinner, who picked up four wickets to make England their target
Jack Leach is closer to the finished article and also bowled well as England brought in Multan
One of the reasons why England like Bashir is that the bounce he gets will give them an advantage if it’s not a huge rotating pitch. But he’s still learning his trade. He still needs to work on that consistency of length in particular, and on Thursday he sometimes did not quite reach that length.
Bashir is at a different end of his career than Jack Leach, who is closer to the finished article and more consistent. You know what you’re going to get from Leach and when the time comes, he will always be a threat.
I thought Leach was smart by going around the wicket to Saud Shakeel, someone who sweeps a lot. From across the wicket, bowling in the Rough, the corners are completely working against you to get the lbw. But when he gets past the wicket, lbw comes into play, and that’s how he dismissed Shakeel.
The problem with this Pakistani middle order is that they are fantastic players against spin. One of the questions with Leach is: what will he do if people come after him or are sweeping? Will he change his pace or flight, or get around the wicket a little earlier to the left-hander?
We have seen in Australia that the moment Leach comes on, their batters go after him. So both Leach and Bashir need to work on their plans if people want to attack. But to get seven wickets between them on Thursday, they bowled quite well.
I also thought Brydon Carse was fantastic again. Because he suffered a foot injury, he was absolutely brilliant on this pitch and was able to get the most out of what he did.
The key moment came when he was bowling and Jamie Smith and Joe Root dropped Ali Agha in the same over.
I was once again impressed with Brydon Carse and did well to get what he could out of the field
However, England will rue the dropped catches, with wicketkeeper Jamie Smith making one mistake
I have been raving about Smith for eight days now because he has handled himself brilliantly. But that must have been a lapse in concentration, because it was about as much of a regulatory advantage as you’re ever going to get.
It’s like a goalkeeper who has been brilliant for 90 minutes and then lets someone go through his legs in the last minute. It’s a cruel game.
You rarely see Stokes express his frustration in a negative way as captain. But it was striking how animated he was when those opportunities fell.
They could have kept the lead below 250, but England will now have to bat very well to chase down 297.