Former England cricketer Nasser Hussain lauded Pakistan for a remarkable turnaround in fortunes to record a 2-1 series win against Three Lions at home, saying that the team found a “kryptonite” to England’s ‘Bazball’ approach to cricket. England’s attacking and positive brand of ‘Bazball’ cricket faced yet another setback as they once again succumbed to spinners in the subcontinent, with spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan shined with stunning bowling spells to hand Three Lions a nine-wicket loss in the third Test at Rawalpindi to secure a 2-1 series win.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Nasser lauded the team for removing batter Babar Azam and star pacers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah after their poor performances in the second Test and praised their spinners for being of “highest quality”. He also said that England players were not very good at playing or bowling spin.
“Congratulations to Pakistan for making that change, they lost six Tests in a row, the fans and supporters were not happy. Different pitches and selectors and they found the kryptonite to Bazball,” said Nasser.
“They have spinners of the highest quality and they have players that play spin really well. It is exposed to England when the ball does spin. When it spins and it is gripping, England does not play spin or bowl spin as good as Pakistan,” he added.
Hussain also questioned England’s ability to play well on any other surface than a flat deck and said that discrepancies in England’s scores were a huge concern.
“There should be a discrepancy because the pitches have been so different from the first Test to the second and third. There is no doubt that scores should go down and spinners should go up. But, the discrepancy in the England side is a concern,” said Hussain.
“It should not be so drastic that you play so well on flat pitches and you can hit through the line but the moment it grips you cannot play like that and so then you are lost,” he added.
Coming to the match, England opted to bat first. After being reduced to 118/6, it was a counter-attacking century stand between Jamie Smith (89 in 119 balls, with five fours and six sixes) and Gus Atkinson (39 in 71 balls, with five fours) that took England to 267.
Sajid (6/128) and Noman (3/88) were the top wicket-takers for Pakistan.
Thanks to a brilliant century from Saud Shakeel (134 in 223 balls, with five fours) and lower-order contributions from Noman (45) and Sajid (48), Pakistan reached a score of 344 and gained a 77-run lead.
Rehan Ahmed (4/66) and Shoaib Bashir (3/129) were the top wicket-takers for England.
England could not build a healthy lead for themselves, skittling out for 112 runs in their second innings with Joe Root (33) and Harry Brook (26) top-scoring. They could only gain a 35-run lead.
Sajid (4/69) and Noman (6/42) were the top bowlers for Pakistan, who chased down the 36-run target effortlessly to win the series 2-1.
Shakeel was given the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his century.
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