Pakistan’s stand-in captain Salman Ali Agha did not have a very memorable first time as a Test captain. The visuals of Salman with both hands on his temples fully expressed the angst he was suffering. That was also how Pakistan’s supporters would have felt after England thoroughly outplayed their team.
“Bowling, batting and fielding – England outplayed us,” Agha said. “We were not consistent enough in any department. In England, consistency is important because there is lateral movement here, so you must be focused at all times. That was missing. And we think that missing consistency is what resulted in this performance.”
Pakistan couldn’t acclimatise to conditions
Pakistan only had one warm-up game to acclimatise to the English conditions before the tour. Almost half of the team they fielded had never played a red-ball game in England. That was the reason Salman found to share the blame.
“An England tour is challenging for any Pakistan side,” he said. “We came into it from completely different conditions. It’s not like we came here a month ago; we only came here a week ago. You may have seen a gulf between these sides.
“If you have pace, it’s good for any conditions. If someone can bowl 140-plus, you’ll definitely add him to your team. We don’t have bowlers who can hit 140 consistently.”
Pakistan have a short turnaround time before they face England again, with the next game set to begin on August 27. Salman is positive his side can work their way around it until then, though it remains uncertain how a gap of less than a week could help Pakistan learn the ins and outs of England; they hadn’t had time to do so previously.
“But when any Asian team comes here, they struggle early on. These conditions are not such that you can adapt to within a week. But we’re trying, and you’ll see in the next game we’ll turn in a better performance.”
Pakistan can no longer look away from their away form
Pakistan’s record in away Tests lately has had a deafening presence in the backdrop of every approaching series. Their win against West Indies in Port of Spain was the first time they tasted glory in away conditions since 2023 and outside Asia since 2021. Salman says the team is aware of this heinous statistic and is trying to turn it around.
“We’re not playing well away,” Agha said. “We haven’t done well anywhere in the world. This is concerning. We do talk about that in every meeting we have. Even outside of official team meetings. We are trying.”
Salman’s keenness to lead a Test side has been satiated for a while at least. He can’t wait to hand the reins back to the injured Babar Azam, who is expected to make a recovery before the Lord’s Test. Making no bones about his desire to let Babar do the dirty work, Salman laughed and said:
“He’s our best batter and one of the best batters in the world. We definitely want to have him and hand him the captaincy.”
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