Pakistan cricket team bowled out for 304 runs in the first innings facing England’s great bowling on the first day of Karachi on Saturday.
The Guest team already lead the three-match test series by 2-0. Pakistan team was bowled out for 304 runs in the first innings of the third Test against England despite a half-century by captain Babar Azam.
In the third and final Test match of the series being played in Karachi, Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and invited England to bowl first.
Abdullah Shafiq and Shaun Masood opened the innings and took the score to 18, but at the same score, Abdullah was dismissed by Jack Leach for bringing the pads in front of the wickets.
Former Test Captain who is playing the last test match of their career Azhar Ali came in to support Shaun Masood and the two combined to take the score to 46. On an individual score of 30, Shaun played an unnecessary shot and tried to pull the ball off Mark Wood, but stood on the boundary. Jack Leach took a simple catch to get them going.
Azhar and Babar adopted the strategy of playing a bit faster and made a partnership of 71 runs at an average of six runs per over, but Azhar, who played the last match of his career moments before the lunch break, lost his wicket. He scored 45 runs.
Saud Shakeel, who has shown good form in the series, added 45 runs for the fourth wicket along with captain Babar, but at this stage, he was caught by a beautiful ball from the young spinner Rehan and England’s youngest Test cricketer took all of the game and got his first wicket in the big format.
Mohammad Rizwan failed once again and after scoring 19 runs, Joe Root took his wicket.
Captain Babar Azam continued his good form in the Test series and batted well, but after completing his half-century, he was run out after scoring 78 runs individually. Pakistan suffered their seventh loss when veteran all-rounder Faheem Ashraf returned to the pavilion after scoring just 4 runs on 237.
Salman Agha tried to bat responsibly and completed his half-century but Jack Leach ended his innings with 56 runs. Noman Ali supported Agha Salman by scoring 20 runs while Abrar Ahmed was the last batsman to be dismissed on a total of 304.
The whole team of Pakistan was dismissed by scoring 304 runs.
Jack Leach was the successful bowler for England who took 4 wickets, Rehan Ahmed took 2, and Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood dismissed one player respectively.
After the Pakistani team bowled out for 304 only 14 minutes match was played and 3 overs were bowled where Pakistani Young Spinner Abrar Ahmed take an early wicket of England. Zak Crawley Lbw by Abrar Ahmed. At the End of the First Day England scored 7 runs with losing one wicket.
Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first.
Pakistan made four changes to the team for the match and along with the injured Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Nawaz, Zahid Mehmood and Mohammad Ali were also left out.
Shaan Masood, Azhar Ali, Nouman Ali and Mohammad Wasim Jr have been included in the final XI in their place. Wasim Jr has made his Test debut and is the 253rd cricketer to play a Test match for Pakistan, he was given the Test cap by veteran batsman Azhar Ali who played the last match.
On the other hand, two changes have been made in the England team for the match, where Rehan Ahmed has replaced Will Jacks and Ben Fuchs has been made a part of the final eleven in place of James Anderson.
Rehan Ahmed made his debut at the age of 18 and became the youngest player to debut for England.
Azhar Ali Retirement
It should be remembered that Azhar Ali announced his retirement yesterday and the Karachi Test is the last match of his international career. With 7,097 runs in 96 matches at an average of 42.49, Ali is Pakistan’s fifth leading Test run-scorer after Younis Khan (10,099), Javed Miandad (8,832), Inzamam-ul-Haq (8,829) and Mohammad Yousuf (7,530), according to the PCB.
Azhar Ali also captained Pakistan in nine Tests in two separate tenures from 2016 to 2020. As he is Playing last match of his career PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja Awarded him a Special Souvenir.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi, the right-handed batsman said, “Everything has its time. This is the right time, tomorrow will be my career’s last Test. It was an honour for him to represent Pakistan.”
Read More : Pakistani Batsman Azhar Ali announces retirement from Test Cricket
