Former Kiwi cricketer Jeetan Patel, one of the assistance coaches for the English setup, gave tribute to all of the team members for their unwavering determination on the field.
After the conclusion of Day 1 of the first Test match against England, Pakistan may have included two centurions in their playing eleven, Abdullah Shafique and Shan Masood. Still, on a sweltering day in Multan when the pitch offered bowlers nothing of value, the visitors should also be commended for their best efforts.
“I was unable to praise them further. The amount of effort they put in today, in my opinion, was exceptional. They fielded and tried various strategies to take wickets. They had worked hard in the opening two sessions, and to take those three wickets tonight was a testament to that. With all four of them out, we’re fairly delighted with the outcome,” Patel was cited as saying.
Patel gave the squad credit for persevering in the face of oppressively hot heat and a flat field that offered little to no opportunity for any of the bowlers.
“The lads had a great day. It would have put a lot of folks to sleep back then. The boys left that third session with both the knowledge of what needed to be done and the energy to really accomplish it. I simply think it’s amazing that [they] went through that. It’s quite warm outside. It was quite submissive at times. It is likely that we anticipated a little bit more from [the ball] this morning. It didn’t, but it’s alright. We’ll work things out and see whether it continues tomorrow. However, the guys had a pretty good day,” Patel said.
Since we don’t really know, we’ll just wait and see what happens when we bat: Jeetan Patel
Regarding England’s plans for Tuesday, Patel was cautious in his assessment of the side’s batsmanship but upbeat in his assessment of their ball-handling strategy.
“We frequently discuss how changing the number of wickets to two alters the course of the game. We could put three on it now that you have a nightwatchman; 350 for 7? We really don’t know, so we’ll just have to wait and watch what happens when we bat,” Patel continued.
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Early in the last session of the day, Pakistan was comfortably positioned at 261/1. However, wickets from Gus Atkinson, Jack Leach, and Chris Woakes reduced their score to 328/4 at Stumps.
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