The Pakistani skipper also backed leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who failed to recreate the heroics of Lord’s Test.
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First Mohammad Hafeez plopped a simple catch to Gary Ballance at short leg and then Younis Khan, inexplicably for a man with more than 9000 Test runs, lobbed a catch straight down Alex Hales’ throat at long on.
Pakistan “need to improve in every department” if they are to compete with England in the remaining Tests of the Investec series according to their captain, Misbah-ul-Haq.
Then, just 40 minutes into the series’ fourth day, the English declared the second innings after going 173 with only one wicket dismissed, setting a 565 target for Pakistan.
Another concern for Pakistan was the form of openers Mohammad Hafeez and Shan Masood.
An England spokesman said the 25-year-old Stokes, playing his first worldwide match after suffering a knee injury in the first Test against Sri Lanka in May, would undergo a scan on Tuesday to determine the full extent of the injury. I’d say he’d be a fairly big doubt for Edgbaston, that’s fairly obvious.
“We left out Steven Finn and Jake Ball against Pakistan at Old Trafford – two good bowlers”, he said.
“Clearly when someone gets 250, that does help – but it was a really good (all-round) performance”, said Cook.
“There was no game plan on how to bowl on the Old Trafford pitch and the line was not right and the intent was missing throughout the England innings”, the pace bowler added.
Akhtar said Pakistan would find it very hard to comeback in the series now after such a demoralising defeat.
Former Test captain Ramiz Raja said the defeat was the continuation of Pakistan cricket woes. “And the problem of consistency remains as usual. he added”.
Ramiz didn’t believe that complacency was the reason for the big defeat.
“England just came better prepared this time”. At Lord’s the conditions suited Pakistan because of the low bounce.
“They played him well”. “He plays on that edge, gives us a bit of an edge as a side, never takes a backward step and drags people with him”.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better response”, said Cook.
An England spokesman said the 25-year-old Stokes, playing his first worldwide match after suffering a knee injury in the first Test against Sri Lanka in May, would undergo a scan on Tuesday to determine the full extent of the injury.
“Their spirit was broken”, said former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott. “One important thing which our batsmen need to understand is that they will get fewer deliveries to hit boundaries on and they need to choose them wisely”.
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This is a player, you’ll remember, who announced himself to the wider world with a gutsy debut Test hundred at Perth during England’s otherwise catastrophic 2013-14 tour of Australia. “It creates pressure. But we know he is a strong character and before the next Test he will definitely analyse what went wrong”. “The spineless batting would have given the England bowlers a lot of confidence now”, PTI quoted Waqar Younis as saying.
