Pakistan v England report cards: grading every player after Test series
Date: 2024-10-30
England
Ben Stokes (53 runs at 13.3; no wicket for 33 runs; three catches)
At times, he had the air of a superhero shorn of his powers. That he did not trust his body to bowl much was not a great surprise (though England really missed one of those gamechanging 10-over spells that increasingly look beyond him) and that he looked in need of time in the middle with bat in hand was also to be expected. What was a surprise was his willingness to let the game drift at crucial moments, conceding singles even without the usual array of catching fielders.
Admirably frank in post-match interviews, in which he refused invitations to blame the pitches, those clips may have been the only sign all tour of the Stokes we have come to admire so much. Grade D
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Zak Crawley (139 runs at 27.8; two catches)
A signature, tone-setting 78 in the first Test sparked a comeback win for the annals, but he got into the 20s in both subsequent Tests and then failed to go on. It is the deal with his style of play, but one hit and four failures invites too much pressure on his No 3. Grade C
Ben Duckett (262 runs at 52.4; two catches)
He approaches every innings the same way – look to score, the last ball does not matter and keep the pulse rate down at all times. His dazzling array of conventional and reverse sweeps might have seduced his teammates into thinking the shots made for easy runs – and they do – but only if you are England’s best ever exponent of the seductive sweep. Grade B+
Ollie Pope (55 runs at 11.0; four catches)
The problem is that we have been here before. The frenetic jumpiness at the crease, the fatal lack of balance and timing even for bog standard deliveries requiring a defensive stroke he played thousands of times as a schoolboy. He has made a positive contribution to just three of the 13 Tests he has played since his epic 196 at Hyderabad in January, and there are few signs of improvement on the horizon. Grade E
Joe Root (352 runs at 70.4; one wicket at 70.0; one catch)
He started with another innings to hang in the Louvre, initially to secure his side a foothold in the series and then, with Harry Brook for company, set up a win for the ages. After that monumental effort, batting 10 hours, almost all of it under pressure, he three times got in and got out, back-to-back Tests taking their toll on even his powers of concentration. He resorted too frequently to horizontal bat shots when the percentages were strongly against him, but he cannot be expected to rescue a fragile upper order all the time. A minor note that may grow, is that his slip catching is becoming more and more fallible in his mid-30s. Grade B+
Joe Root was a rare bright spot for the tourists. Photograph: MA Tanveer/Reuters
Harry Brook (373 runs at 74.6; one catch)
The cricketing gods had their revenge after he made the game look far too easy in compiling a triple century and grabbing a fistful of records in the first Test. Was it complacency, inexperience or (most likely) a hubristically misplaced confidence that saw only 56 runs for four times out in the last two Tests? What was clear was it was poor shot selection, especially in the match situation, as much as execution against spin that caused his downfall. As is the case for England as a whole, he will have to develop a game that can get him through rough patches as well as cashing in when the wind is in his sails. Grade B
Jamie Smith (150 runs at 30.0; eight catches and one stumping)
His keeping began with a neatness born of excellent footwork and good hands, but, like much of England’s play, it wilted under the tight schedule and rigours of touring in Pakistan’s security bubble. It was easy to forget, on both sides of the crease, that this was his first overseas outing for his country. His unselfish batting pushed down his average, but a shockingly poor dismissal in the third Test with Joe Root at the other end and his own super first innings to underpin his confidence cannot be omitted. Grade B-
Chris Woakes (17 runs at n/a; two wickets at 55.0; one catch)
One appearance on the first iteration of Multan’s pitch underlined the old saw that his selection overseas seldom pays off. Grade C
Brydon Carse (40 runs at 20.0; nine wickets at 24.3; one catch)
Bent his back to wring nine wickets out of the Multan strip, an admirable effort and just reward from another addition to England’s phalanx of pacers who can get a bit of movement and go to the short ball tactic if required. Grade B
Gus Atkinson (51 runs at 17.0; six wickets at 27.9)
Crafty, with enough pace to keep the batters honest, he bowled his tight lines and immaculate lengths consistently on an overseas debut that backed up the promise shown last summer. His six wickets were all top five batters. Grade B
Rehan Ahmed (16 runs at 8.0; four wickets at 16.5)
The spinner was brought in to take wickets in the decider and he did so with his curious combination of big turning googlies and more gentle leg breaks. He may never be trusted to deliver the long spells a spinner must bowl, so his Test future depends on his batting improving sufficiently to justify the all-rounder’s slot at six. That looks a long way off at the moment. Grade B
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Matthew Potts (15 runs at 15.0; three wickets at 28.3)
The wholehearted Durham paceman ran in with plenty of enthusiasm, but looks a little light on weaponry compared to other options available to the selectors. Grade B-
Jack Leach (52 runs at 17.3; 16 wickets at 31.4; two catches)
A solid, if unspectacular, return to the colours for England’s senior bowler, he can be pleased with his control of the scoring rate and seven more wickets than any colleague, bowling more attacking lines with more flight than we have seen in the past. The problem is that he was comprehensively outbowled by his opposite numbers. Grade B
Shoaib Bashir (14 runs at 7.0; nine wickets at 49.6)
The off-spinner, who turned 21 during the series, bowled enough good balls to underline why England show such faith in his promise (delivering just 15 overs fewer than Leach). That said, he is what he is – a youngster making his way in first class cricket thrust into its toughest version, struggling to find his feet. Grade C-
Pakistan
Shan Masood (225 runs at 45.0; three catches)
His dazzling century in the first Test heralded a return to form and silenced his many doubters, but was all but washed away by the Root-Brook partnership and England’s extraordinary win. The aftermath of defeat brought chaos on and off the field, unprecedented even for Pakistan, but he retained his focus, kept playing his spin twin trump cards and created an environment in which batters could express themselves in their own ways. He might not demonstrate the mercurial inspiration of great Pakistan players of the past, but he has an extraordinary result on his record – and he deserved it. Grade A-
Abdullah Shafique (132 runs at 26.4; three catches)
The opener got the job done with a century in the first two sessions of the series, but barely scored a run after that knock, his partnership with Saim Ayub at the top of the order almost comically unproductive. Grade C
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Saim Ayub (155 runs at 25.8; two wickets at 50.5; two catches)
With his fellow opener and his captain gone and a debutant at the other end on the previously used strip at Multan, Saim knew that 19 for two could have become 120 all out if he did not dig in. His 77 got his team back into a series they were three-quarters of the way to losing and, though his other scores were disappointing, that one proved crucial. Grade B-
Babar Azam (35 runs at 17.5; one catch)
A shadow of the titan of the past, he looked ill-at-ease at the crease and with himself. Lost his place for the second Test in a call from a revised selection panel that looked premature and panicky – but proved correct. Grade D
Kamran Ghulam (147 runs at 49.0)
The 29-year-old walked to the crease with the series on the line, knowing that he was replacing a Pakistan great with 31 centuries to his name. He showed tremendous mental fortitude in promptly making one of his own. Everything that happens later in that Test and the tumultuous third, only happens with that knock, which took the scoreboard from 19 for two to 243 for four. Grade A-
Saud Shakeel (280 runs at 56.0; no wicket for 14 runs; one catch)
The left-hander conjured memories of Allan Border with his shot selection and a compact technique that married solid defence to a willingness to take high percentage options that kept the scoreboard ticking over. By the end of his 134 that broke England’s hearts and minds in Rawalpindi, Stokes was to waiting for a mistake. Grade A-
Mohammad Rizwan (99 runs at 19.8; five catches and four stumpings)
An accomplished keeper these days and more of a wit than a sledger behind the stumps, his smile and obvious delight in his work is what his team needed in the field. With the bat, he threatened to explode, but got out too often after doing the hard work. Grade B-
Agha Salman (262 runs at 65.5; one wicket at 126.0; four catches)
He churned out the runs from No 7, with his 104 and 63 in the first Test lost a little under the avalanche of England’s 823 for seven. The timing of his scores meant that his best efforts had less impact on the series than those of Saud Shakeel. Grade B+
Aamer Jamal (114 runs at 28.5; one wicket at 165.0; three catches)
The bowler who bats was more required for his secondary skill than his primary one and became an increasingly peripheral figure as spin took over the attack completely. Grade C+
Noman Ali (78 runs at 26.0; 20 wickets at 13.9; one catch)
The quiet persona of Noman, the man who looks like an everyman, perfectly complemented the extrovert Sajid Khan at the other end, as the pair posed questions England could not answer. His bowling was an old-school feast for the connoisseurs, each over a chapter of temptation, subterfuge and charm in a tale telling of unobtrusively effective mental disintegration played out over two Tests that etched his name into Pakistan’s cricketing folklore. Even his batting was vital, his crucial partnership with Saud Shakeel breaking England’s spirit in the decider. Grade A+
Noman Ali and Sajid Khan announced themselves as a devastating pair mid-series. Photograph: Anjum Naveed/AP
Sajid Khan (72 runs at 36.0; 19 wickets at 21.1; one catch)
Who saw him coming? The 31-year-old with an undistinguished record in his eight previous outings burst into Multan for the second Test with a thirst for camera-time that Virat Kohli might envy. He was exactly what his his country required, demonstrating that personality matters so much to a finger-spinner. To reduce him to the blazing eyes and the trademark celebration (that, somehow, never got irritating) is unfair, as he bowled with tremendous aggression, accomplished technical skill and subtle variations to wrestle the series away from England and delight neutrals and, I venture, a few England fans to boot. Grade A+
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Naseem Shah (39 runs at 19.5; two wickets at 78.5)
The still young firebrand bowled with pace and great heart on a surface that offered him nothing but was jettisoned as Pakistan turned to spin. Grade C-
Shaheen Shah Afridi (36 runs at 18.0; one wicket at 120.0)
He was dropped after failing to get anything out of the Multan pitch but, a little more surprisingly, nothing through the air either. He will be back, as left-arm pace is a potent currency in world cricket. Grade D
Zahid Mahmood (two runs at 2.0; one wicket at 71.0)
His captain clearly did not fancy the leg-spinner at all so, even when he did get on, he lacked the confidence all spinners need. Grade D
Abrar Ahmed (three runs at 3.0; no wicket for 174 runs)
Looked completely out of sorts as England toyed with his bowling. Since he was subsequently hospitalised with dengue fever, that is entirely understandable. Grade N/A
