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With Pakistan gearing up for second Test against England at Multan, team's head coach Azhar Mahmood clarified that the star batter Babar Azam has not been dropped but rested from the remaining two Tests, adding that he was willing to play in these two matches.
Pakistan will be looking to put an end to their misery of not winning a test for almost two years as they take on England in the second Test. They lost the first Test despite scoring well in the first innings. Pakistan have not won a single Test at home since 2022, losing six out of their ten matches and drawing four. In the first Test, England became the first team to take a first innings lead of over 200 runs after conceding over 550 runs. Pakistan became first team to lose a Test match by an innings after scoring over 500 runs in the first innings, thanks to England's 823/7, the fourth-highest Test innings total of all time, and the highest in the 21st century. Ahead of the second Test, the cricketing world was up for a shock as Babar was dropped for remaining two Tests along with pacers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah. Babar made scores of 30 and five across the two innings of the match. He was adjudged lbw to Chris Woakes in the first innings and edged wicket-keeper Jamie Smith off the bowling of Gus Atkinson in the second. His last 50+ score in the format came back in December 2022, and in his last 17 Test innings, he averages just 20.70. In his last eight innings on home soil, where runs have flowed for others, Babar has averaged just 18.75. However, during the pre-match press conference, Mahmood confirmed that Babar was being given rest given their tight schedule in Tests till April next year. He also asserted that Babar is country's "number one player." "He has not been dropped. He has been rested. The management also understands that there has been a lot happening in the last few months. Mentally, even if you say you are strong, it still goes on in the back of the mind," said Mahmood. "He was willing to play. But it was the decision for him and Pakistan team to give him a rest so that he can come fresh. Because after this, we're playing till April next year. Babar is our No.1 player. There is no question about that- his technique and ability. If you look at Pakistan's (Future Tour Programme) FTP, there's a lot of cricket coming up. So, because of that, the selection committee decided that this was the best time to give Babar a rest." "After this, we have to go to Australia and Zimbabwe and there is a South Africa tour as well. So that is important," he concluded. During the presser, Azhar also explained the reason behind Pakistan's switch from three-pacer, two-spinner attack to a one pacer, four spinner attack. Naseem and Shaheen were both given a heavy workload as England racked up a mammoth 823/7 in last week's first Test in Multan. The coach said that there is need to bring more spinners into the team and give the selectors chance to rest country's two top pacers ahead of matches that could utilise their skillsets better. "There were also a few niggles. Naseem had a few niggles and Shaheen was playing a lot of cricket. So we decided to rest him," he added. The head coach also said that for the home season, it was Pakistan's plan all along to prepare seamer-friendly wickets for Bangladesh series in August and give turning, spin-friendly tracks during the England series. "We had a clear plan on what pitches to make against Bangladesh, and which way we have to go against England. Our approach was just this, that we will use seam against Bangladesh and spin against England, and make pitches accordingly," said Mahmood. "If you look at the previous pitch, our instruction was that the ball should spin. We wanted that after the second day, the ball should spin. But you saw that even on the fifth day the ball did not spin. So I hope that in the next Test match hopefully, on a ninth-day pitch the ball spins," he added. The result of the first Test moved England to fourth on the World Test Championship table to keep hopes of a Final spot alive, and consigned Pakistan to last place in the standings with a possible points percentage of just 16.67 per cent. Pakistan playing XI for second Test: Abdullah Shafique, Saim Ayub, Shan Masood (c), Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel (vc), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Zahid Mahmood. (ANI)
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