Dan Lawrence was shuffling outside offstump, thrusting his hip at the ball, trying to play weirdly defensive shots to Mohammad Ali. He missed them all. Then he moved away from the stumps, gave himself some room and tried to hit over extra cover. Instead, he sliced it to backward point for a boundary. Next delivery, he played the same shot, but with a stiller head and straighter blade, and the ball ended up in the crowd over cover.
England were not in trouble at this point, but Lawrence was. So he went into the Bazball bag of bashing, and found a way to change the game. If Pakistan were about to roll him and England, Lawrence basically ended their chance, and went on to make another half-century (he must be sick of them now - he’s got six without hitting a century) on a difficult pitch.
Not everyone likes this style, but this is how it should be used. A nick is coming, the ball is keeping low for LBW, you need to do something to upset the game plan.
Dan Lawrence is a fringe player, yet he can change moments of games so quickly.
Compare that to Mohammad Rizwan’s new obsession: the slog sweep when he comes to the crease. It changes the game quickly, but towards the bowling team.
It was a disgusting attempt at disruption.
****
Pakistan have used 12 players in this series so far. Which is remarkable, as they came third at Headingley in a contest of two teams. If Babar Azam was fit, they may have been unchanged.
Imam-ul-Haq is a 30-year-old who doesn’t average 30 when he travels, and doesn’t score quick. On top of that, he will forever be known for this ghost calf injury scandal. He’s unlikley to shake up many games, if he gets picked again.
Azan Awais shapes up well, is compact and disciplined, and he can play a lovely whip over midwicket. But he’s never been asked to play T20, and rarely even gets a go in List A cricket. He is one of the most orthodox young players in the game.
Shan Masood has changed his cricket so many times it is hard to remember what his current version is. He did have a couple of years where he played aggressively, but has started to slow down again. But even when upping the tempo, he’s fairly consistent with his play. He takes clever, simple chances. It isn’t game-changing, even when scoring fast.
Salman Ali Agha is in a similar position. He can score quickly, but it’s fairly normy behaviour.
Abdullah Shafique and Saud Shakeel are cut from the same cloth too: both can score, but there is nothing transformative about them. Shafique batted well at Leeds, but it was playing normal shots at the right moment.
Shakeel should have got a hundred in the final innings at Lord’s at a decent clip, but it wasn’t counter-attacking. It was just that England bowled short and he kept pulling and hooking. There was a lovely cover drive on one knee, and some smart play in difficult cirmtsances. But it was what you expect a traditional player to try. This time, unlike all the other moments for Pakistan, it worked. Mostly their normal batting has faltered.
In a world of Rishabh Pant, Travis Head and Glenn Phillips, the Pakistan team bat normy.
Pakistan are not a slow-scoring team, but they’re also not fast over the last two years. While this tells us something, in a world filled with the Scott Boland/Ollie Robinson/Mohammad Abbas type of bowlers, they don’t do anything to upset the bowler’s rhythm. They are trying to beat the best bowlers in the world with conventional techniques, and that seems almost impossible now thanks to wobbelaball, DRS and friendly surfaces.
They need a disrupting tactic. But at the moment, they stand there looking afraid until their innings are over.
Usually Pakistan would bat out of their crease, but Tom Blundell has inspired a revolution by coming up to the stumps. So against Robinson, Pakistan’s choice was to hope he gets tired. Which is hard to do when their innings never even teases getting to the second new ball. They are just trapped on the crease, waiting for another nick or LBW.
Jamie Smith up at the stumps has been good, but he doesn’t really have to be. He could just stand there eating a sandwich and checking the racing results. His job is to stop Pakistan using the crease. With their batting being so orthodox in every other way, they are just waiting for Robinson to dismiss them.
This kind of bowler is a revolution in our game. And Pakistan are so obsessed, they also chose three of those kinds of new-fashioned wobble-ball medium-fast bowlers. It is not Pakistan’s fault that Ali and Khurram Shahzad bowled arse in the first Test. But when they bowled well in the second, with Abbas in even better form, they still had the issue that they picked the same type of bowler three times.
Josh Tongue could lean on his front foot without any worry, as he was facing 124-135kph bowling. England put on 68 runs for the last two wickets. There was no point of difference they could use, because it was just three seamers of similar pace and style. So once in, the tail felt really comfortable.
Abbas can obviously change a game. Ali and Shahzad also could, on certain days. But their attack has no height, no pace, and the same arm. There is no flat-pitch specialist, and even their left-arm finger spin from Ali Usman is a very normal orthodox choice.
Once a game goes in one direction, there seems to be no one from their team – with bat or ball – who can change it.
They are a sepia-toned team in a rainbow era.
Not that all of them haven’t tried. Today Rizwan tried to disrupt.
OK, so, umm, how do I put this - if your outlier batter is someone who bats so slow in T20 that it seems like he is unaware what format he’s in, it’s probably not the guy who shakes things up.
On top of that, Rizwan is obsessed with playing the slog sweep to fast bowlers. Often to the worst options: Jasprit Bumrah in T20Is, Robinson in Tests. And I am not sure he is good at the shot.
But even then, the attempt at Lord’s on an up-and-down surface was about as bad as it gets. He was lucky to only be dismissed from a very groiny LBW.
If he’d tried the ramp, or to flat-bat down the ground, you could understand it. Or, if like Lawrence, he found a gap and shot combo that could upset the bowler, it would make sense. But Pakistan either played straight, batted orthodox until getting out, or Rizwan slogged hard and was trapped nuts before wicket.
England remain undisrupted; Pakistan remain disgusted.
This is a great analysis.