The head coach of the England side, Brendon McCullum, displayed his surprise at Pakistan management decided to go with the same pitch for the second of the two-match Test series against the visiting to bring the spinners straight back into the game. The first Test in Multan saw the Ollie Pope-led side putting over 800 runs in their lone innings for a huge victory.
Brendon McCullum, at the end of the game, looked back at the last four days of the Test match, where they picked up a couple of early wickets with the ball but couldn’t hold the assistance for a long time. The 149-run partnership for the third wicket between the opener Saim Ayub and debutant Kamran Ghulam put the platform for them.
Even when they captured those wickets, the most required job for the visiting side would have been to bundle out the home side for around 300 runs, which they failed to do. The lower order of the batting order contributed with the 30s and 40s, which eventually put some pressure on the Ben Stokes-led side.
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“Tough few days in terms of result, but I thought for a lot of the game, we didn’t do a lot of stuff well. The conditions were extreme and we knew that heading into the Test match, it would be the reused surface but it would have been great to win the toss.” Brendon McCullum expressed to ‘Sky Sports’ in an interaction at the end of the game.
The Green Brigade also did a commendable job with the ball in hand. At two down for over 200 runs in the first innings of their bowling, the England side could have aimed to get another mammoth lead in the contest, but Sajid Khan displayed his skills with the ball in hand.
Brendon McCullum is not fussed about reusing the surface for 2nd Test
The one delivery against Pope pitched outside the off-stump and hit the top of the off-stump to send the batter back and that cracked the batting department. Apart from their left-handed opening batter, Ben Duckett, no one was able to stand with the bat in hand.
Brendon McCullum pointed out the mistakes they made in the fielding and the batting, besides praising the way the Pakistan spinners operated in the game.
“Credit to Pakistan. I thought they put enough runs on the board in the first innings, and the way their spinners operated on the surface started to deteriorate, and that put us under a lot of pressure. We were able to respond, but we look forward to the next Test.” The former New Zealand captain added in the discussion.
The former wicket-keeper batter of the side was asked if he had any issues, given the Shan Masood-led side decided to reuse the same surface. The veteran was stunned by the ‘quirk’ of it, mentioning how important it would be for the home side to have an advantage.
“I didn’t mind, but I quite like the quirk of it. I think, sometimes, when you play at home, you should have home advantage, and I guess after the first Test match, where we played well, and were able to 1-0 up, something had to give and took on it.” Brendon McCullum elaborated.
“Fair play to them. (they) won the toss and were able to play as well as it could be on those conditions, and you get those results. I don’t have a problem with it at all.” The England head coach concluded.
The third and final Test of the series will take place on October 24 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.