THE writing was already on the wall for Pakistan once Alastair Cook and Joe Root laid the foundation for a sizeable first-innings total for England in the second Test.

Pakistan, wore down in the field after chasing the leather for 152.2 overs, were left to play the catching-up game from thereon. And caught they were as England snuffled 10 catches in the first innings to paint a miserable picture for the Pakistanis at Old Trafford.

After the hullabaloo generated by their rousing victory in the Lord’s Test, the over-celebrating Pakistan found themselves completely off-guarded when they retained the XI that won them the series opener by 75 runs.

Not unexpectedly, England were bound to come back extremely hard at Misbah-ul-Haq’s outfit. The margin of victory in Manchester could have been bigger had Cook enforced the follow on after his team had taken a commanding lead of 391 on day three.

Look at it both ways, Pakistan’s 330-run drubbing was emphatic enough to give England a decisive shift of momentum for the remaining Tests at Edgbaston and The Oval. Such defeats can easily run down a team and Pakistan, historically, have a tendency of repeating the habit.

A revisit to the 2004-05 tour of Australia is a classic example to recall the bad days Pakistan had outside of Asia. In the first Test at WACA in Perth, Ricky Ponting refused to make Pakistan bat again despite Australia being 202 runs ahead on the first innings. Closing the second innings as soon as Damien Martyn reached three figures, Pakistan were left with an improbable target of 564 just before stumps on the third day.

As it transpired, the visiting batsmen lasted mere 146 minutes in the second innings as Glenn McGrath grabbed career-best figures — Australia’s second best in all Tests — of 8-24 in an unchanged spell of 16 overs. In that moment of madness Pakistan lost nine wickets for 38 runs in 21 overs on way to 72 all out in 31.3 overs and their biggest-ever loss in terms of runs as the Aussies won by a colossal margin of 491 — to this day, it is the fourth largest win by runs in all Test cricket.

Pakistan had gone into that first Test on the confidence of a series-leveling victory against Sri Lanka in Karachi seven weeks earlier in a game that marked the triumphant Test comeback of Younis Khan after a 13-month hiatus with a career-resurrecting 124.

But scars of the thrashing in unfamiliar and unforgiving conditions of Perth were so painful that Australia then went on to win the remaining Tests at Melbourne and Sydney by identical margin of nine wickets to complete a 3-0 whitewash, with none of the matches stretching beyond day four.

The Manchester catastrophe was not dissimilar to that of Perth as the Pakistan batsmen lacked the application and temperament to counter not-so-threatening bowling. Several of them needlessly threw wickets as they did then over 11 years ago.

Younis, the only survivor of that Australia series who is still around, fatefully heaving a catch in the deep in the second innings at Old Trafford was almost replica of his ugly slog-sweep against Shane Warne in the first innings of the Perth Test. Such shot-selection from country’s highest run-getter and the team’s senior-most stalwart was tantamount to committing suicide.

It seems the entire brigade want to jump off the cliff simultaneously in a show of camaraderie in contrast to the post-Lord’s act of collective push-ups and salute to those who got them mentally and physically fit for the England tour.

While England ensure their combination was perfect this time, Pakistan were in no mood to think out-of-the-box and adopt the horses for courses guiding principle keeping in mind the difference in playing conditions found at Old Trafford compared to Lord’s. The credentials offered by seamer Imran Khan and spinner Zulfiqar Babar were not enough to persuade Misbah and Mickey Arthur from leaving out Wahab Riaz to accommodate either of them.

Team selection for Edgbaston and The Oval will be long debated on every cricketing forum. Top-order failings are not anew for Pakistan, particularly when playing away from subcontinent. No matter how many hours you spend in the nets, it is performance in the match that stands and recorded. Technical flaws would only go away if the players themselves are willing enough to take note of the mistakes and resolve not to repeat the same, time and again.

Shan Masood’s all four outings in the series have ended in a familiar pattern — caught in the arc between wicket-keeper and second slip. The returning Anderson not only nabbed the opener twice at Old Trafford to emulate Woakes’ double success against the left-hander at Lord’s but also now holds an clear edge with six straight dismissals whenever he confronted poor Shan, starting from the last year series in the UAE.

Azhar Ali is experiencing torrid times, especially against Woakes who has got his scalp thrice thus far with the Pakistan vice-captain falling for single-figure score on three occasions.

The gulf between teams was so massive in this Test that questions will be asked of several Pakistan players. Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq has gone on record that replacements could be made in case of emergency.

Hafeez and Shan together averaged only 18.50 for the first wicket in the series. The situation in 2010 was even worse when the opening stand on average in eight innings was just 11.62.

History was always going to be unkind to Pakistan as Cook and Root joined the ranks of a select band of players who have enjoyed run feast against them.

The Old Trafford fixture provided only the ninth instance when two of the top three batsmen have made hundreds in the same innings against Pakistan away from Asia. The previous such occurrence was in 2002-03 when South Africa openers Graeme Smith (151 and Herschelle Gibbs (228) made hay in the first innings at Newlands in Cape Town.

On four of those occasions, Pakistan were blown away by innings while losing all eight Tests with West Indies at Georgetown in March 1958 providing the rare instance of two of their top three reaching hundreds in both innings of the same Test in an eight-wicket victory.

The last time England had two men scoring centuries among top three against Pakistan was at The Oval in 1962 when opener Colin Cowdrey (182) and No 3 Ted Dexter (172) punished the visitors in a 10-wicket win inside four days.

As it stands now, the remaining Tests offer little hope unless Pakistan regroup as swiftly as possible. Thus far, the toss has played its part decisively in the first two matches. But Edgbaston could make a difference to this theory.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2016