PAKISTAN cricket’s chronic problems of brittle batting and poor fielding once again reared their ugly heads at Old Trafford as the national team went down to a crushing 330-run defeat at the hands of England in the second Test on Monday.

It was a stark contrast to Pakistan’s impressive show at Lord’s where they won the first Test with disciplined bowling and some good batting, especially from captain Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed.

However, the top four had looked suspect at Lord’s as well and their failure in the Manchester Test now is indeed a cause of huge concern for the tourists with two more Tests still to go.

Pakistan have clearly struggled to find a reliable opening pair since 2013 despite incessant experimentation at that position in nearly every series. In these three years, Pakistan have played 21 Test matches but could see just three stands of over hundred by the openers which is a poor ratio by all counts.

In the 2013 Test series against South Africa, Nasir Jamshed and Imran Farhat were tested as openers but in the very next series against Zimbabwe, Hafeez had a new partned in Khurram Manzoor in both the Tests matches. Then at the neutral venues of the UAE when Pakistan faced South Africa in a return series, young Shan Masood joined Khurram Manzoor as opener but both failed to make much impression.

Soon afterwards, Pakistan faced Sri Lanka in Tests at the UAE and this time Ahmed Shehzad came out to open the innings with Khurram. Both openers were retained for Pakistan’s return series in Sri Lanka but in the all-important Test series against Australia in UAE, Pakistan brought back Hafeez to open with Shehzad and later experimented with Azhar Ali as well for the top slot.

New Zealand arrived on the heels of Australia contest in Dubai and that series saw Shan making a comeback as opener with Hafeez while Taufiq Umar also opened in one of the Tests.

The subsequent tour of Bangladesh once again saw a new opener Sami Aslam partnering Hafeez in both the Test matches without much success. A tour of Sri Lanka was then finalised by the PCB and this time the threee openers who played musical chairs included Hafeez, Shehzad and Shan where the last mentioned made his mark with a defiant hundred that won a historic Test for Pakistan.

In the three-Test series against England that was played in the UAE last year, Pakistan retained Hafeez and Shan as openers and the two were also surprisingly preferred for the current series as well without really putting up a single decent stand together.

Their poor show in the two Test matches of the on-going series has raised serious questions about their ability to occupy the top slots and there are calls to bring in reserve opener Sami Aslam in the next two Tests.

The poor performance of Pakistan’s top order in the current series can be guaged by the aggregates of the top four batsmen in the two Tests at Lord’s and Old Trafford. Hafeez, the most experienced opener, has collected just 100 runs in the two Tests while Shan has scored just 71. As for Azhar, he has been a total disappointment in the series so far with an aggregate of just 39 at an alarming average of 9.75.

Captain Misbah, perpetually the man of crisis for the team, and the ever-improving Asad Shafiq have led the batting averages with their resolute and fluent batting. Misbah with 201 runs in the two Test heads the table, averaging 50.25 in four innings while Asad has scored 165, averaging 41.25.

The team’s premier batsman and the most experienced player, Younis Khan, of whom much was expected in this series, has struggled to put together a decent score so far with just 87 runs to his name from four innings at a low average of 21.75.

Wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed, though contributing some useful scores at crucial times, has not performed cleanly behind the stumps and dropped a few already. He needs to take more responsibility as a player and convert his 30s and 40s into bigger knocks.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2016