Usually Manchester and the Northwest of UK gets blamed for the rains that can occur almost any day of any month without much notice.With Covid -19  triggering the new bio-secure settings meaning players needing to be accommodated within the sporting facility, Southampton and Manchester  were the obvious choices. It led to the age old concern of having cricket in a rain prone venue.

Having said that Manchester’s third test of the summer ,a row produced a result and it was a cliffhanger, being the first test of this series.It seemed that the weather won’t be able to say much come the tour moving south.Weren’t we so wrong ? The 2nd test of the series was marred by rain with a whole day washed out on day 3, resulting in an early close even before a 2nd inning was halfway through.

Come the third test, it was more likely that the final days of the test might be affected.England won the toss for the first time and decided to bat. Pressure on Pakistan  ? Not initially.They dismissed  Burns, Sibley, Root and Pope by 127.Then came a stand for the ages. Zak Crawley, relative early in his test, came solid in his eighth outing. Following on from earlier int he week where he cracked a 53, he punched and cut his way through the bowling lineup.England had accumulated a quick 332/4 by stumps with Crawley (171) and Jos Butler (87) ,who must be dreaming of when he faces the Greenshirts next , locked in a record setting stand.

Crawley’s debut ton materialised into a double hundred.At 6 feet 5, he stands as the second tallest double centurion.For the fifth wicket, they set a monumental 359 runs, a record for England. Crawley cruised  to 267 , the 10th highest score from an Englishman. Jos had 152 and the Pakistani bowling was pasted for two days having no clue to how to get wickets.They waited until finally Joe Root called them in at 583-8.

If this script hasn’t been written before, there must be an abyss the viewer is whilst  watching a game involving  the Greenshirts. With the new ball swinging in Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad’s hands rather than Mohammad Abbas or Shaheen Afridi’s, the rails were about to come off.At 24-3 on stumps on day 2, the follow on target of 384 looked already unattainable.The next morning Asad left for 5 and Fawad with an uncanny knock of 21 somehow survived to make the new ball old for the skipper.

Enter Mohammad Rizwan, who had starred with a 72 earlier on this ground. The  skipper, Azhar Ali  was on the other end and he seemed destined for the sack  considering how poor his form was the two put on an important stand .Rizwan reached his second 50 and Azhar claimed a grinding 17th 100, the first as skipper abroad and bought time to take the visitors to 273.This was a crucial innings in context of Azhar’s journey post 2017.He had adjusted a tactic of clearing his left leg in the series which gave him some breathing space and once his eye set in, he played the pacers nicely.

Pakistan still  followed on but now the weather came into play on days four and five.With not much play possible from 100-2 on day 4 , the tourists were asked to shake hands soon after Jimmy Anderson had removed Azhar in the 2nd innings for 31 to bring up his 600th wicket, an unbelievable effort.Babar punctuated the last innings of his tour with a 63, although the lack of hundred did tell the story for Pakistan’s leading batsman. The draw was called with visitors 187-4.Pakistan had finally lost to England after 2010 in a test series.

This wasn’t a surprising result however given the rain that has fallen, it was strange to see two consecutive tests end in Southampton due to it.So what had each team gained ?For the hosts, Zak Crawley impressed a lot as a youngster, Jos Butler despite the numerous drops as a keeper held onto his place with two huge knocks secured the man of the series.Chris Woakes, the man of the match in Manchester was another positive but then Greenshirts are his bogey team.For Pakistan,Mohammad Rizwan was man of the series rightly with the way he impacted in crises in collapses and his excellent glove work.Azhar Ali redeemed his test batting place for now and it might be enough to retain his captaincy as well for the time being.

As for the cons, the English openers for sure and this wily off spinner called Dom Bess. How he continues to be in the squad is an enigma but come the winter Jack Leach might be kept in.For Greenshirts where to begin with? Well the batting surely leads off . Has Asad Shafiq played the last of his 77 tests? With an off colour tally of  67 in his five innings, it looks like he is all set to be dropped for the Kiwi winter tour.Its been one of his worst tours and sadly it comes at the twilight of his career.There might not be a reprieve for this.

Pakistani bowling has usually been their strength historically but keeping in line with youth the lack of aggression in Naseem shah and  Shaheen Afridi , the young guns has been mind boggling.The continued reliance on Yasir Shah who isn’t the country’s no.1 spinner to get the majority of the wickets is also a growing concern.It seems the lack of Wahab Riaz and Mohammed Amir in red ball game has led to the lack of a spearhead and a mentor on the field.

Its been 10 years since Pakistan lost a series to England and that gulf was apparent despite the rain.Even if the two draws secured 20 WTC points each, the visitors will have to redress the balance by having a careful and deep reflection on their selection choices, resilience in batting and bowling and most importantly their mindset.

( To be continued )