The Pakistan cricket team, which was hoping to make a comeback after the shocking defeat in the first Test match, has once again disappointed the fans with its performance. In the first innings of the second Test match which started in Rawalpindi, the Pakistani team could not last even a full day and collapsed before 300 runs. Once again, Bangladesh’s spin attack exposed the Pakistani batting and forced it to face embarrassment in its own home. Half of Pakistan’s batting line-up fell to spinner Mehdi Hasan Miraz and the entire team collapsed for just 274 runs. In response, Bangladesh had scored 10 runs till stumps.
Then the batsmen disappointed
The first day of the match was completely washed out due to rain, due to which this test match could start only on the second day on Saturday 31 August. The Pakistani team came out to bat first but on the last ball, opener Abdullah Shafiq fell prey to pacer Taskin Ahmed without opening the account. After this, Pakistan captain Shan Masood and second opener Saim Ayub handled the innings and made a strong partnership, which made it seem that this time the Pakistani batsmen would correct the mistake of the last match but it did not happen. There was a partnership of 107 runs between Masood and Ayub and both scored half-centuries but after both of them were out, the situation worsened again.
Pakistan was once again disappointed by its star batsman Babar Azam, who got a good start but could not convert it into a big score. Babar could score only 31 runs and the wait for a half-century that had been going on for 20 months increased further. Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan, who scored centuries in the last match, also got out cheaply this time. The situation of the Pakistani team would have been even worse if Agha Salman had not handled the innings from one end. Salman somehow took the team to a score of 274 runs by playing an innings of 54 runs. In response, Bangladesh had scored 10 runs without losing a wicket.
Surrender to Mehdi’s spin
This condition of the Pakistani team happened once again because of the spinner. Bangladesh’s main spinner Mehdi Hasan Miraz destroyed the Pakistani top order and stopped them from scoring big. Mehdi, who played an important role in Bangladesh’s victory in the last Test, this time increased his number of wickets and sent 5 Pakistani batsmen to the pavilion. In this way, Mehdi took 5 wickets in an innings for the 10th time in his Test career. Mehdi dismissed Masood and Ayub and then did not let the struggle of the lower order batsmen last long. At the same time, veteran spinner Shakib Al Hasan dismissed Babar Azam.
