the times | Thursday August 6 2020 2GM 67
Sport
E
ngland have banned
football from their
warm-ups after Rory
Burns injured an ankle
last winter and missed
Tests against South
Africa, but played head
tennis during a break for
the weather. A group on
the players’ balcony
headed it down to
another group on the
edge of the outfield. Mark
Wood, set up by Ollie
Pope, eventually
completed the challenge
by getting it into the bin.If the sun is
out but with
no cricket...
S
han Masood is belatedly
coming of age as a Test
cricketer. As with so many
players, the journey to this
juncture has been treacherous,
a veritable minefield at times as he
has gathered failures and experience
in equal measure, but here was an
unbeaten innings from the 30-year-
old left-handed opener that
confirmed that he has learnt and
improved and is nearing the point
where maturity and confidence at this
level are combining nicely.
Pakistan may have elected to bat
first because of the dry surface but it
was one of those slate-grey mornings
when a captain makes that decision
with a glance at his openers as if to
say: “It might be a little tough for you
in the first hour but if you can come
through unscathed you can set the
game up for us.”
At which point most openers
bemoan their luck and mutter curses
in the direction of their colleagues in
the middle order, whom they may
think prima donnas at that moment.
For Shan and his opening partner,
Abid Ali, there will probably have
been more misgivings than usual.
That is because Pakistan openers
have not fared well on these shores
for an awfully long time. Indeed the
last time one of their pairings put on
50 here against England was way
back in 1996. And Shan was fighting
his mental demons about facing
James Anderson.
Six times he had faced Anderson in
Tests before this and six times the
great English seam bowler had
dismissed him. When Anderson
missed the only other Test Shan had
previously played against England —
at Lord’s in 2016 — Chris Woakes,
also present here and in magnificentmake sloppy England pay
Shan succeeds at last in
country he knows so well
following the ball with his hands away
from his body. The slip cordon was
constantly on red alert.
And we actually saw an early sign
here that Shan may be reverting to
type under pressure, as so many
batsmen do, when the first boundary
of the day came from an indecisive
push off the back foot off Stuart
Broad. There was another boundary
off Woakes which was even more
fortuitous, as the ball just evaded
third slip, and Woakes could be seen
imitating Shan’s tendency to play
away from his body after completing
his over.
The truth is that Shan was
incredibly disciplined, always trying
hard to play the ball under his eyes
and hold the line of his shot when
Anderson was regularly passing his
outside edge. The ball moved around
a great deal in the first session and
even the magisterial Babar Azam (in
at No 4 after the opening partnership
had been split at 36 — no fifty again
— and the captain, Azhar Ali, had
recorded a duck) had been squared up
on numerous occasions.
For Shan to have reached lunch
with 27 runs from 80 balls was some
achievement. He looked much more
secure after the break. This time
when he hit Broad for four behind
square on the off side, he did so with
complete control.
Then when Broad strayed
straighter upon the same length, Shan
clipped him with balance and timing
to his favoured leg side for another
boundary.
As for a leg-stump full toss from
Jofra Archer, well, that was a
“gimme”, the manifestation of a poor
afternoon’s bowling from England.
It was when the off spin of Dom
Bess was introduced that Shan looked
most ill at ease. He very nearly played
on and then twice on 45 was grateful
for glaring errors by the wicketkeeper,
Jos Buttler, who dropped a catch and
then missed a stumping.
When bad light finally intervened,
Shan was still there, his 46 not out
from 152 balls having allowed Babar
to flourish. He had done his job.form, sent him packing twice cheaply.
This was a serious challenge for Shan
but at least he was buoyed by his
recent form since returning to the
Test side in 2018. His past two Test
innings were centuries: 135 against Sri
Lanka in Karachi last December and
100 against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi
in February this year.
England always provides the
ultimate test for an opening batsman,
a laboratory of seam and swing that
will examine every last part of a
player’s technique and temperament.
And Shan knows that. After all, he
may have been born in Kuwait, but he
regards England as his second home,
having lived around the corner fromLord’s in St John’s Wood between
2008 and 2013, as well as spending
time at school at Stamford in
Lincolnshire and at university in
Durham. He knows that to be
considered a true Test opener, he has
to succeed here.
In 2016 he had not been ready
technically or mentally. “I think I was
a little bit too eager,” he has said.
“England holds a special place
for me, and I wanted to go back
there and score runs. I expected a
fairytale story.
“Honestly, deep down, when I
looked at myself back then — and
even when I look at myself now — I
see quite a lot of shortcomings and
see that there are things that I want
to improve.”
What we saw in 2016 was a
batsman too easily drawn intoSteve James
Pakistan’s opening woes
South Africa
Australia
New Zealand
Sri Lanka
West Indies
India
PakistanAverage first-wicket Test partnership
away to England this century
52.06
43.09
41.05
36.35
26.57
25.90
16.58
Minimum ten partnershipsTOM JENKINS/NMC/POOLJAVIER GARCIA/BPI/REXButtler’s two
missed chances
The England wicketkeeper put down
Shan on 45 when he dropped a thin
edge off Bess from the last ball of the
39th over, above, and then missed a
stumping off Bess, main picture and
below, with the same batsman still on
45 in the 47th overEngland v
Pakistan
Day two, 11am
Emirates Old Trafford
TV: Sky Sports Main Event
Radio: BBC 5 Live Sports ExtraCloudy but little
chance of rain