England vs Pakistan: England closing in on emphatic series sweep

0:00This episode of the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast is brought to you by Ladbrokes. Whatever you're building, get more from your bet builder. Now that is Ladders Faction. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Visit gambleaware.org. Stuart and Nasser alongside. I mean, it's a recovery of sorts from Pakistan, but the worst possible start with the bat. It just seems to get worse and worse for them. It does. And with some loose shots as well, Samahoub in particular, a classic being in the field for some time and then you go out there, you're not fully concentrated. But the main issue is actually he probably shouldn't be here.

0:34He hasn't played a first-class game for 11 months. He was playing CPL 10 days ago. I don't know who thinks it's the right thing to fly someone over from foreign conditions playing a completely different format and think they're going to be fine in these conditions against a Duke's ball, against Ollie Robinson and England's bowling attack. is just a sort of disrespect and disregard for Test Match cricket. Test Match cricket, as any cricketer will tell you, is the toughest format. Batting at the top of the order in England is the toughest task. And you just feel you can fly someone in from some part of the world and go, good luck.

1:14Verinder Sawag tried it on this ground, if you remember. I don't know if you were playing in that game. Got it first innings. They flew in. What if Verinder Sawag hobbled? Verinder Sawag got a pair. And that's Verinder Seweg, who's a better, more experienced player than Saim Ayub. So a bit of responsibility goes for the lad for the shot he played. But also, whoever thought that that was a seriously good decision and that he was going to go OK this week. Not fair, is it? It's not fair. No, it's very difficult. And it's the players that often suffer, right? Absolutely. So he gets a pair. Does he get another go?

1:45Maybe not. But really, he shouldn't be in the position that he's openly batting against an on-fire England bowling attack in these conditions, having not played a first-class game for as long as Nass said. So, yeah, really unfair on the player. But ultimately, as a player, you've just got to try and make as much use as you can of your opportunities. And ultimately, a loose drive, first ball of an innings, is a poor shot from an opening batter. And Pakistan will feel they've got the harsh end of the conditions. They come out, brand new ball, the clouds have rolled in, the floodlights were on having had a morning of sunshine where England were batting and actually the ball did less and then they come out and tough batting conditions but you can't play a shot like that as an opening bat I've just seen Sir Alistair Cook in the hallway and sort of said if you'd have played a shot like that first ball after I'd been bowling all that time we'd have been having a serious conversation but it's you know good bowling getting the ball in the right area but you feel like the gifts of wickets really And, you know, that is how test match cricket flows, right?

2:51When you talk about batting going and getting 450, all that coincides with then getting early wickets because you drill the opposition into the ground. You make them tired. You make their body language disappear. Watch them from when Joffre Archer was batting at the end with Oli Robinson. They're just staring at the ground. They're looking at the crowd. They're looking in the sky. They're not communicating. Raza Ulla was sort of still charging in with the passion that you'd expect him to on debut. and no one celebrated Oli Robertson's wicket hit to cover, we were on commentary. We were a bit like, is that a wicket?

3:21Because all the field has just wandered in. And if you're showing those signs of mentality and body language and tempo to your game, very, very difficult to lift your spirits enough to then go and fight against a brand new ball. So that's the whole art of test matches. It's getting the opposition team into a state of, that they can't fight anymore and they can't compete. and that's where that first over sort of laid bare for the top order of Pakistan. We'll come back to Abdullah Shafiq's dismissal in a minute because you highlighted a reoccurring theme with his back path. But on Brodie's point, that is symptomatic of a team that is disjointed.

4:01They're sort of fighting for themselves as opposed to collectively. I thought that was a staggering passage of play, actually, where a young lad on debut, full of enthusiasm, takes four wickets. He's on the verge of five on his Test Match debut. And the group just dissipated. Yeah, because Test Match cricket is like we've said it so many times. It's like an arm wrestle. And this Pakistan side coming into the third Test and now well into the third, well, two days. That feels like well in the amount of cricket and wickets that have fallen. They're like that. England have so, every single session they've gone like that and they are down.

4:37You can fly people in. And also, the ones that are here are knocked by the fact that in between games, people have axed. Their mates, their roommates, their friends have been axed and have gone. People have got fifers, they've gone. Why should they? Apart from you're playing for Pakistan, which is a major reason, but when you're treated, and Af has spoken about this quite a bit, how you treat players, how you treat people that have been there. We see in the huddle people being given a baggy green Pakistan cap. That's a two-way thing. This for you is something that you've earned and you've rewarded for.

5:10And we expect you to do certain things, some values, some core values when you play for Pakistan. And if you give us those core values, we will look after you. That is what creating a team is all about. But that goes the moment you send seven people home, one of whom got a five for two test matches ago. That goes. Those core values go. People start looking after themselves. people start looking down at their shoelaces when number 10 and 11 are smacking it. Why should I bother about a team that doesn't bother about me and has sent my teammates home between tests? Why should I bother? I'll just look after myself.

5:46I'm all right, Jack. And it used to be like us in the 80s and 90s. I'll rock up and I'll look around the dressing room and see who have they picked. Oh, they've picked Hickey and Smithy and Ramps and Thorpey. And we'll go and we'll play and hopefully we'll win. Central Contracts brought us all together to play for England. This Pakistan side at the moment, only are they poor on form and poor, they look a little bit like what will be will be and I'll just look after myself. Is there anything that Barber can do in this situation, specifically the one you're talking about where it all just sort of dissipated after he took his fourth wicket?

6:17There was a case where Stokes was in charge. I think the wicket was taken. Joffre might have been down having a drink or something and Stokes was into him, get up into the huddle. Could Barber drive this a bit more? Is he in the same boat as what Nasser just said? look, you've done all this without my authorisation or even my approval or even asking me the question, how am I going to put all this together? How do you see that as the captain? How do you see him as a leader? And how do you lead when you're in this sort of situation? It's very difficult. I think he said that he wasn't aware of the decision-making to send seven players home, sack the coach and assistant coach to take them off the tour as well.

6:54So, you know, you don't just turn up at Headingley three days before and go, OK, right, this is how we're going to play. You build towards a first Test match. You're building a culture, a squad, a tactic. So then all that goes when your head coach is gone and your assistant coach is gone and seven players have moved out. So you've sort of got to start again. So it's very, very difficult. And if you don't agree with the decision to send those players home, then you're fighting with that as well. And we don't know how much he knows of the players coming in. It's very hard to get a message across to build for the future when you're dealing with the chaos that's happened off the field.

7:30So on Nassi's point, it does feel like this test match is turn up as a group of 11 individuals and try and find a way to deliver yourself and hope for the best. And ultimately, we know professional sport. I can't think of any sport in the world where that works as a team. So very, very difficult. They needed absolutely everything to go perfectly for them from the minute the toss of the coin went so high from Joe Root. They lose that toss and they're under huge pressure straight away. What were they, 26 for four? And it would take a very strong, amazing team to get out of that situation. And this Pakistan team is not that.

8:08How much time did you spend as captain getting to know your players individually? Owen Morgan's very big on that. How much time does that take? Because, again, that's something that Barber is dealing with. He's been introduced to these guys, may not have met them, certainly hadn't played with them. he's lost all of that information. Well, he has no information, no personal background behind how you get the best out of a certain person. Yeah, and that's why I mentioned central contracts there. If you're asking me what's been the biggest change, and I don't think we highlight enough, is what central contracts have done for English cricket.

8:41It produced Broad and Anderson, by the way. They were good themselves, great themselves. But because of central contracts, pre them, I'm talking now fitness and everything, fast bowlers were bowled into the ground, they would rock up, they'd bowl 30 overs for their county. By having central contracts, you rested your players, you knew who was going to be there. Even if they went four games without getting runs or wickets, because they were on a central contract, they felt comfortable in the side. Me as a captain got to know them. They got to know me, all my bad points and my anger issues as a captain.

9:12Of which there were many. And all those things. So you get to know each other. So today, Barber in the last couple of days may well have known Rasulah, the bowler, what is his skill, slingy, reverse swing, but what's he like as a human being? What makes him tick? It's noticeable that he's gone and stood at mid-off. Joe, before the injury, went and stood at mid-off because he wants to get to know bowlers that he's not captain before, Josh Tongue, what makes him tick. Stuart Broad used to stand there with Jimmy Anderson at mid-off, not because he's his mate, but he's been there with him so many times, in good and bad, that Anderson will know what Broad and what he's going through and when his legs are pumping and when they're not.

9:52And that is a part of a team culture that, again, just goes like that. It just cracks into pieces if you're constantly chopping and changing. You literally had a captain two games ago that came in, was then left out at the side, was then sent home. You had a spinner that played, got five wickets, was then sent home. So all these things means that that bonding suddenly disappears. So you're right, Barber will take time now. But the problem with that, within two games, either Barber will be gone or someone else will be gone. So you have to start redoing all that. Go back to your point about Abdullah Shafiq and that back path, because this has been a reoccurring dismissal, reoccurring technical fault.

10:35Yeah, we saw it in 2024, actually. His back comes across the line of the ball. Today was not so bad. He was trying to hold it, didn't he? but the damage was done because the bat was coming across the line. And this was 24 to 26. And you can see where it's coming from. You'd hope the bat comes in a straight line, but look at the last bit. It sort of comes from slip to mid on. And then early in this series, again, slip across the line. And then even later in the series, even worse. Look how much it's going across the line of the ball. And when you have someone like Ollie Robinson and the skills of Ollie Robinson just nibbling it around.

11:15That's a dangerous part. You want your bat to be coming down on a straight path. You know, think the greatest I've seen in Sachin Tendulkar, straight bat line. If it's coming like that, then you're going to edge it. And Brodie made an excellent point. That's okay if you're batting five and six in England or in Pakistan when it's not seeming as much against the Dukes ball and Robinson in England in these conditions. That's a dangerous path for your bat to have. He's tried to work on it. You can see the changes. He's got a higher back lift, he's tighter with his hands, and he got 61 at Headingley, but he slipped back.

11:48Under pressure, he slipped back into bad ways. Aslan Oasis has got something about him. He had a right battle with Joffre Archer. He's bowling quickly at Lord's and found a way. He guts his way to 40-odd. And he's had the better of him, actually, today in this short, small sample size. Yeah, he's got a great cover drive, so he waits for the ball in that area. He can clip off his hip nicely. So, yeah, he's been a positive for the Pakistan touring side. What is he, 21 years old? Top of the order in difficult conditions. I keep going back to the fact that Joe Root struggled for runs in this series.

12:24Best ever player that we've had. So if he's struggling, then it's OK for everyone else to struggle a little bit. So top of the order batting has been very difficult. But, you know, he's coped with it really well. You know, he got first ball of the series. That puts you under a bit of pressure on the back foot straight away. but he's been able to come back and show a bit of fight. And Joffre Archer is a brilliant bowler against left-handers, much better bowler against left-handers than he is right-handers. So that is a tough place to be batting at the top of the order at the moment with Ollie Robinson in the form of his life and Joffre Archer bowling good pace and moving the ball away from the left-hander.

12:57So I think he's coped with it fine. He's got an opportunity to come back tomorrow, we think. What he will be hoping for is he doesn't have to go and face four overs tonight. and come back tomorrow, hopefully with a blue sky and have a chance to bat. We saw this morning, Harry Brooke, Dan Lawrence, looked much easier batting in that first session. Pitch looked calmer, more relaxed. You get this ball 30, 40 over zone, you've got an opportunity. I have found it remarkable, the lack of sentries this summer. It's very unusual for an English summer to think that we might have a test match series with zero test sentries since 1888 was the last time that happened, which shows how rare that is.

13:38How old are you then? But, you know, it's just one of those things that's really unusual, but he has an opportunity if he comes back tomorrow not out to just bat a day. He's got a nice temperament, nice technique, a very tough bowling attack to get over. But think what that could do for Pakistan cricket, who are in a big hole at the moment. They're in a mess. They don't know what the best team is. They don't know what players they're looking at. They don't know who their coach is. But if you get a 21-year-old, as I know ways, and a 21-year-old in Razula that you go, you could be our future. We're going to look after you, control the games you play and hopefully get them in the right conditions at times.

14:19But you get a nucleus of a side that you go, you're going to play 20 games. So difficult as a player. If you're three games in, five games out, game in, you have no place in the side no role and no sort of lack of you're just fearing failure the whole time because you're just trying to find a way to score if someone comes to you what Brendan McCollum did when he came in 2022 after all the changes that have happened through Covid and I think we had 45 changes in 10 test matches he came in and said you're my 11 for the summer you're going to play whether you get no runs 500 runs this summer you're playing so relax and just do your thing and the confidence that gave to the group was immense.

15:02What have you made of England's batting in this series? Broadly references the fact that there's been no century made in this series. I mean, Ducat's the only one that's got a Test match century and that was way back, Trent Bridge against New Zealand. Difficult pitches, yep, but what have you made of it overall? I've liked the tempo of the batting. We've talked about that a lot in the basball era and if they go too hard, seizing moments and opportunities. I think they've got the tempo right, especially that middle order. Brook, Smith, Lawrence and even Atkinson after him. And even Tung, I know it's a poor Pakistan bowling line-up, but Joffre and Tung.

15:41Joffre was actually underperforming with the bat. We've seen him bat now how he wants to bat. Josh Tung is showing a bit of solidity. I can't believe I'm answering about Josh Tung's batting when you're asking me about the England batting line-up. I was thinking more you were going to talk about Brook or Duckey or Emilia. Anyway, you carry on. But the middle order leading into that lower order, and I like Emilio Gay at the top in the tempo that he's playing at. He just plays and bats time. I think English cricket and this side has been calling out for that. But obviously the one box they haven't ticked, well, two, their greatest ever player is struggling and struggling with one specific type of dismissal in the LBW.

16:17And now it's so obvious that he is struggling. And he tried to change it in the first innings where he went leg side of it. So he's made a technical change, got out of LBW again. And the other one is getting hundreds because to beat Pakistan, you can beat Pakistan with 40s and 50s and 60s. To beat Australia, to beat New Zealand earlier in the summer, you need to go and get big hundreds. You need massive scores. So it's been good. I've liked the tempo, but just convert the starts into big scores. Is that a concentration thing, do you think? or is it a case of, you know, there's plenty happening and occasionally there's a ball with your name?

16:56When you look at Dan Lawrence, he drags it on, but that jagged a little bit as well. If it was a good flat pitch and you're on 60-odd, then that probably goes for four. They are getting starts, as Nasser said, but there seems to be this aversion of getting to three figures. It's a difficult one because we can't praise the likes of Ollie Roberts, who's got 20-odd wickets at six, with it nipping all over the place, and then go, we should be scoring more hundreds. Well, quite. So I think a 60, to be honest, in this summer, in this series, has felt like 100. I think you've had to work as hard to get a 60 as you would do on a normal Test match pitch, in a normal Test match summer, to get 100.

17:38So there will definitely be a discussion about it around the group of when we get in, let's really try and go on. But I've just felt every single Test match pitch this summer has had a delivery in it that's going to get you out at some stage. And that just plays on your mind. You're not saying anyone today for England who got into the 60s and 70s got a good ball. Harry Brook ran himself out. Dan Lawrence chopped one on. Jamie Smith tried to work one around the corner and leading edge. But it's the balls in between that that just fill your mind with a bit of uncertainty. So it is a concern, and Joe Root's form is a concern.

18:14But Joe Root would just be desperate to get to South Africa with a bit of extra bounce, a bit of extra movement, he can use the pace of the ball a bit more. I would say, look at someone like Matt Henry, who's knocked him over this summer, Mohamed Abbas a little bit. Joe's a much better player of, I'd say, more regulation test match bowling, the higher pace. This sort of keeper up thing has been a trend this summer, but I hope it's not a trend that continues for a long period of time. You think if Australia come in next summer with Pat Cummings, Mitchell Stark, Josh Hazelwood, which is their front three, Joe's not going to have an issue with the keeper stood up.

18:56Yes, he has an issue a little bit with Pat Cummings nipping the ball back, but he doesn't have an issue with the keeper stood up. And I would expect Test cricket to sort of settle back in to that sort of frame, really. You know, Marco Janssen's not going to be bowling with the keeper up at Pretoria. So I would say Joe's got a better chance of scoring runs in South Africa than he has had this summer. It's been brutal on the batters. You know, it's been easy test match bowling. You know, we can't say it's been really difficult to bat and say that it's been hard to bowl. It's been easy test match bowling.

19:27It's not been, you know, you could have taken, there'll be a lot of bowlers in county cricket that you could have thrown the ball to. I'd say virtually all of them and say, come and have a bowl and they'd take wickets. So it's not been a test for the bowlers, particularly this summer. But it's been very difficult for the batters. I think today would have been the most disappointing for Brook and for Lawrence in particular.