KARACHI: Former Test opener Sadiq Mohammad has urged Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and batting coach Younis Khan to take serious note of the way the top six batsmen lost their wickets in the rain-disrupted second Test against England in Southampton.

The youngest of the famed Mohammad brothers — four of whom played for Pakistan — told Dawn on Saturday that the current top-order batting is fragile because they lacked footwork to combat the swinging deliveries from the England quartet of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Sam Curran.

At the Ageas Bowl, Pakistan in their first innings slumped from 102 for 2 to 223 for nine on the second day of the match. Only opener Abid Ali (60) and wicket-keeper/batsman Mohammad Rizwan (60 not out) could impress with the bat.

“If we take a good look at the TV footage of how our batsmen got out then one notices all of them either got caught in the slip cordon or trapped LBW,” Sadiq commented. “And the reason is simple: all the batsmen had no footwork and their front foot never went in front of the crease.

“Instead of front foot movement, they moved their backfoot, to play forward and tried to drive the moving ball. All of them fell on the deliveries pitched up to them since they let the ball come too close to them which allowed the ball to swing both ways.

“With this poor technique they were bound to get caught behind the wicket or find themselves trapped in front of the stumps,” Sadiq, who scored 2,579 runs in 41 Tests between 1969-70 and 1980-81, stressed.

The heavy atmosphere due to cloudy conditions at the Ageas Bowl invariably helped the England seamers, Sadiq noted.

“They utilised the conditions to good use by pitching up most of the time and when they saw Pakistan not going forward to neutralise lateral movement, the bowlers didn’t have to wait much longer for the wickets,” he said. “I am pretty sure the England coaches are noticing the ball swinging while watching replays and Pakistan batsmen not using their front foot, while driving from the stance position.

“The [England] bowlers repeatedly bowled length ball to make the batsmen play square on the off-side cover drive or chose to block without any foot work. As a result they let the ball take outside edge of the bat,” he underlined.

The 75-year-old Sadiq further said: “I would suggest Misbah and Younis must advise our batsmen to remain at least 1½ feet outside the crease to minimise the swing both in the air and off the pitch.

“Once they start doing this even their defensive blocks or strokes will start going in front of square. They’ll also them force the bowlers to make them play on the backfoot, which will be easier to negotiate. Normally, especially in English conditions driving a swinging delivery will mostly hit the outside edge towards the slips and wicket-keeper.

“Our coaches should review the video and see that most of the runs in this innings have been scored are behind square towards the third man or square-leg regions. And this is due to lack of footwork.”

Sadiq, who played with Gloucestershire in the English county championship during the 1970s, pointed that he learned a lot how to adapt to the conditions during his playing days in England.

“My experience simply taught me that when playing defensively the ball generally went behind square on the off side. I always used to stand 1½ foot outside of my crease,” the former opener concluded.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2020