England vs Pakistan Live Score 2nd Test Day 1 at Headingley: Pakistan have a 1-0 lead in the Test series. (Source: AP)
England vs Pakistan Live Score 2nd Test Day 1 at Headingley: After a disastrous Ashes tour to Australia, England lost the 2-match Test series against New Zealand. Skipper Joe Root hoped that a return to home conditions might improve their performance, but the side were shell-shocked as they suffered a 9-wicket defeat in the first Test against Pakistan at Lord’s. With Pakistan leading the 2-match Test series 1-0, England need to bounce back and earn a win in the second Test at Leeds to save the series. Pakistan, on the other hand, will be eager to register another comfortable victory and clinch the series.
England vs Pakistan Live Score 2nd Test Day 1 at Headingley: England need to win to level the series. (Source: Reuters)
Thus far, most of the balls that have left the hands of Stuart Broad have whizzed mere centimeters past the outside edge of the batsman. They find themselves in quite a sticky situation at the moment. Broad and Anderson have both bowled seven overs each and now Chris Woakes starts his spell.
Broad is on fire and Pakistan are finding it difficult to deal with him. In his previous over he had forced Haris Sohail into picking up a nick that flew over slips and ran away to the boundary. This time, the delivery is coming into the right-hander, beats his inside edge and hits him flush on the pads. He is so plumb that Broad doesn't bother looking at the umpire.
This time the fielding side don't need to look at the umpire. Broad lures him in with a nice little half volley, Imam has a slash at it. But the ball is moving away from him and he ends up nicking it. Good start for England.
Stuart Broad bowls the second over and has he trapped Imam Ul Haq LBW? Umpire thinks so and the batsman reviews the decison. The ball has hit him too high and is soaring above middle stump so he survives.
Jimmi Anderson starts the English attack, Imam Ul Haq and Azhar Ali open for Pakistan.
Pakistan: Azhar Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Haris Sohail, Asad Shafiq, Usman Salahuddin, Sarfraz Ahmed (C & WK7 Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas
England: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (C), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (WK6 Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Dom Bess, 9 Sam Curran, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
So an innings defeat for England is not possible. Ben Stokes is indeed out and Sam Curran has taken his place. Chris Woakes replaces Mark Wood. For Pakistan, Usman Salahuddin makes his Test debut and he is replacing the injured Babar Azam.
Well, one thing is confirmed. Sam Curran, aged 19, will make his Test debut for England in this match. He received his cap from Graham Thorpe.
The grapevine has it that Ben Stokes has not been able to recover from a hamstring injury. There is a good chance that Sam Curran will be making his Test debut in his place. We will find out for sure in a bit. Stokes may not have been in the best of form since he has made his comeback into the Test squad. Regardless, his absence will be a big blow.
No one was spared in the aftermath of England's defeat to Pakistan at Lord's. The England and Wales Cricket Board, coach Trevor Bayliss, captain Joe Root were all blamed in a variety of ways and the British media stopped just short of writing obituaries for the England Test setup. Pakistan were brilliant in that match, never taking their foot off their throttle and Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas and Mohammad Amir put out performances that was a hark back to the times when the team's dressing boasted the likes of Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar and so on. But England were adjacently awful. Their Test regulars failed to fire and the only time the hosts looked in control was during Dominic Bess and Joss Buttler's stand on Day 3 that helped them avoid an innings defeat. Now, they head to Headingley, where they would hope and pray that Pakistan don't to them what West Indies astonishingly did in August, 2017.