Adding salt to Pakistan‘s wounds after the home team’s embarrassing defeat in the first Test against England at Multan, Michael Vaughan has said that the second Test at the same venue may follow a similar script with another “Pakistan collapse”.
The second match of the three-Test series, which England lead 1-0, will enter its third day on Thursday, after Pakistan threw a few punches through spinner Sajid Khan to peg the visitors back.
After scoring 366 in their first innings, the hosts reduced England to 239 for 6 at stumps on Day 2 despite opener Ben Duckett’s century (114), with off-spinner Sajid registering impressive figures of 4 for 86.
While Duckett was going strong, former England captain Vaughan commented that the visitors may take a first-innings lead, which could lead to a finish similar to the first Test.
“Early signs this Test could end up the same as the first .. England lead, then Pakistan collapse in the 2nd innings,” Vaughan posted on ‘X’.
But 127 runs behind at stumps on Day 2 and with just four wickets in hand, it might happen that Pakistan take a first-innings lead and then build on it.
Vaughan’s comment came after he had said that dropping Babar Azam from the Test squad was a “stupid decision” by Pakistan. However, Babar’s replacement Kamran Ghulam went on to score a century (118) on debut to prove Vaughan wrong.
“So Pakistan haven’t won in a while .. Go 1 nil down in the series and decide to drop the best player in @babarazam258 .. I guess Pakistan cricket is full of surprises but this tops the lot .. absolutely stupid decision .. unless he has asked for a break !!!” Vaughan had written on X.
Reacting to Vaughan’s comment after Ghulam’s century, former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali had said that “Vaughan should be shown the picture of Kamran Ghulam”.