PAKISTAN’S emphatic eight-wicket victory over the West Indies in the second Test at Queen’s Park Oval last week has delivered more than a series-levelling result. It ended a three-year wait for an away Test victory, snapped an eight-match losing streak on foreign soil and, perhaps most significantly, demonstrated that players who have come through the domestic system can still rise to the occasion when given an opportunity.
Yet the victory in Trinidad should not obscure the problems that have dogged Pakistan’s red-ball cricket. With a three-Test series against England beginning at Headingley on Aug 19, Pakistan will have little time to savour their Caribbean breakthrough.
The win was Pakistan’s first away Test victory since July 2023, when they defeated Sri Lanka in Galle. Since then came a 3-0 defeat in Australia, 2-0 losses in South Africa and Bangladesh and defeat in the opening Test of the Caribbean series. Eight successive away defeats had exposed a side increasingly unable to withstand pressure once conditions turned against it.
In Trinidad, however, Pakistan adapted. After being outplayed on a pace-friendly surface in the first Test, the visitors exploited conditions that increasingly favoured spin, bowling the West Indies out for 117 in their second innings before chasing 75 with eight wickets in hand.
Abdullah Shafique was central to the turnaround. Drafted into the squad after the withdrawal of the injured Shan Masood, he responded with an unbeaten 160 in the first innings, an innings lasting more than seven hours and spanning 323 deliveries. It was the first 150-plus score by a Pakistan batsman in a Test in the West Indies since 1977.
His innings was hardly an isolated example of a player benefiting from the domestic circuit. Abdullah had scored 369 runs at an average of 41 in six matches in the 2025-26 Quaid-i-Azam Trophy season, including four half-centuries. His first-class record, with more than 3,700 runs at an average above 45, also suggests that his Test return was backed by a substantial body of performances rather than a single purple patch.
The bowling attack offered another example. Off-spinner Sajid Khan, recalled after missing the first Test, took eight wickets in the match, while left-arm spinner Ali Usman made a telling contribution in his debut series. Pacer Mohammad Ali also provided important breakthroughs as Pakistan steadily dismantled the West Indies’ resistance.
Sajid’s recall, too, had a domestic foundation. In his five most recent first-class matches before the Caribbean tour, he took 25 wickets, including match figures of 7-113 against Oil and Gas Development Company and 7-159 against Khan Research Laboratories.
Usman arrived with 198 first-class wickets at 28.72, while Ali had taken 19 wickets in the 2025-26 Quaid-i-Azam Trophy at an average of 23.21. The figures underline a point Pakistan’s selectors have too often overlooked: the domestic system does contain experienced and productive red-ball performers capable of making the transition to Test cricket.
The selection of the attack, particularly the omission of experienced seamer Mohammad Abbas despite a great show in the first Test, demonstrated a willingness to pick according to conditions rather than reputation. It was precisely the sort of adaptability Pakistan have often lacked overseas.
But one victory cannot conceal the batting problems.
Pakistan’s middle order remains their greatest concern, with seasoned campaigners Salman Ali Agha and Mohammad Rizwan struggling to provide the consistency required once the top order is breached. Salman has managed only two half-centuries in his last 14 Test innings — 93 against South Africa and 71 against Bangladesh — and has been dismissed for single figures four times during that stretch. His returns in the Caribbean have been particularly worrying, with scores of 20 and nought in the two Tests.
Rizwan’s recent returns offer little reassurance either. In his last 10 Test innings, he has registered only one half-century, a 59 against Bangladesh, while being dismissed for single figures twice. He made 12 and 11 in the first Test against the West Indies and 18 in the second, where he did not bat in the second innings.
The problem, therefore, is not simply the absence of runs. Both batsmen have demonstrated that they can play substantial innings, but Pakistan need greater consistency from its middle order, particularly when the top order fails and the team is under pressure.
Collapses have consequently become a recurring feature of Pakistan’s red-ball cricket. Promising positions have too often been surrendered through a succession of loose strokes and an inability to build substantial partnerships. The first Test in the Caribbean was another example. Pakistan, after gaining a position of strength, collapsed for 120 in their second innings. Even in victory in Trinidad, the lower middle order offered little evidence that the problem has been solved.
That is particularly worrying before a tour of England.
Headingley, Lord’s and Edgbaston will offer a markedly different examination. England’s conditions, the Dukes ball and a seam attack capable of exploiting movement will test Pakistan’s top order, while England’s aggressive approach under new captain Joe Root is likely to keep the pressure on throughout an innings.
The Caribbean victory has given Pakistan something they badly needed: belief. Abdullah’s return provides encouragement at the top, while the bowling attack has shown that it can change its composition according to conditions.
But England will ask a more difficult question: can Pakistan sustain pressure rather than merely respond to it?
The answer will depend largely on the middle order. Unless Pakistan find a way to turn starts into partnerships and partnerships into substantial totals, the Trinidad victory could prove to be an encouraging interruption rather than the beginning of a revival.
There is, however, one encouraging lesson from the Caribbean. Pakistan did not have to look beyond their domestic cricket for the ingredients of victory. The talent was already there, producing numbers and building experience away from the international spotlight.
What Pakistan still lack is the reliability to make that talent count consistently at Test level. The Caribbean has offered a glimpse of what is possible. England will provide a much sterner test of whether Pakistan have finally begun to build on it.
Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2026
