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Former England captain Nasser Hussain praised Ollie Pope and company's display on Day 1 of the first Test against Pakistan in Multan, despite conceding 328/4 in 86 overs. The English bowlers were made to toil hard on a lifeless surface as Abdullah Shafique and Shan Masood recorded memorable hundreds.
Pope found himself in the captaincy limelight yet again after Ben Stokes failed to recover in time for the series opener. The stand-in skipper had a tough take while leading the side away from home for the first time as the hosts had it quite easy for the first two sessions, scoring 233/1 in 52 overs.
England, however, launched a fightback in the final session. Both the centurions were dismissed in quick succession while Chris Woakes made the new ball talk by taking the crucial wicket of Babar Azam towards the end of the day's play.
"Walking off at 328-4, usually, you are thinking that the game has gone away from us. Actually here, they must be thinking, 'we did quite well there lads.' That is the difference between playing at home and playing away from home. If you walk off in England, and the opposition have got 328-4 on the first day, a lot of the time you are out of the game. Here, you are still in the game, and that is a credit," Hussain said on Sky Sports at the end of the day's play.
Nasser Hussain praised the manner with which England came out fighting following the tough first couple of sessions after being put into bowl first.
"We were looking for body language, fitness, speeds, coming back with the new ball, and they did all of that. They should be pretty proud of what they achieved. People at home might be thinking Pakistan are in the ascendancy, but you could only do today what they did. You cannot criticize either Pope or the bowlers, they stuck to their task, they gave it everything, that was as tough as it gets for a bowling unit," Hussain concluded.
Pakistan's run rate for the first two sessions was well over the four-runs-per-over mark. However, England's fightback meant that the hosts scored only 95 runs in the final session at a run rate of 2.79 while losing three wickets.
England are more than familiar with Pakistan's flat pitches
Pakistan had put out similar pitches when England last toured in 2022. The Ben Stokes-led side completed a 3-0 whitewash, and scored over 500 runs on the first day of the tour in Rawalpindi.
A similar high-scoring encounter is set in store this time around as well, and the matchup between England's in-form batting unit and Pakistan's bowling unit, which is still trying to find its way, will determine the fate of the Test.
