[coughs]

When England have b- struggled to take wickets, they've done something fairly basic like that, and then Pakistan have given them their wicket.

And for that hour, hour and a half, it looked like that first, uh, barrier was being resisted by someone who wasn't letting the short ball get on top of them.

And then England suddenly looked like maybe they, they might need a left arm, or they might n- m- might need someone with a little m- more guile.

Maybe Ollie Robinson in those conditions wasn't quick enough, um, and they need, and they needed a different dimension to their attack.

So I, I, I, I do think that conversation will continue to happen over the, over the next year, but if you give these four bowlers a series, you can't, you can't really say they haven't done the job they were expected to.

Mm.

There's just so much uncertainty.

Daniel, to begin, tell us about that barnstorming day, uh, in the space of thirty seconds, please.

Um, I think this day is all about the final hour, hour and a half.

Um, every da- everyone here this morning packed their suitcases ready to go back to London.

It is a very London-oriented media.

Um, Pakistan, Pakistan had no reason to give them any confidence they'd survive for too long.

Um, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali, good for the first hour, hour and a half, discipline built on the fifty-run partnership.

But we always feared once a couple of wickets fell, the bottom would fall out.

Yeah

I mean, what is the thinking behind that? Because, I mean, if you haven't played, then you're like, well, what have I done?

I think this is where how badly they've managed the whole situation really comes to light because there may have been legitimate reasons.

For example, if you want to release Ali Usman because you don't fancy a spinner at Edgbaston, surely you don't include his name in the same list of players that you're signing back for disciplinary reasons.

If you're signing Imam back or Rizwan back because you're not happy with them, then that is a separate issue to just calling back Ali Usman as well because otherwise he ends up being tarred with the same brush.

To use an example, if, for example, when Pride and Cast was let go after his incident, imagine if, for whatever reason, they weren't going to play Ollie Robinson either.

And in that same press release, they just said, oh, we are also releasing Ollie Robinson.

Guilty by association.

You had them two

Did Pakistan bowl well enough on a pitch that's showing so much extravagant movement that actually the MCC's been in touch with a, a five-point plan for how they're going to tackle the pitch in the future?

I think no one knew how this Lord's pitch was going to play because Lord's has been unpredictable and according to a lot of people not brilliant as a surface the last few seasons.

Um, it got an unsatisfactory rating against New Zealand and they-- I, I think they were especially keen to avoid that this time around.

Um, I don't think it's been the best pitch Pakistan's performance probably Shields them a little bit from criticism because no matter what pitch you prepare, this batting lineup, weak as it is, would have probably folded in less than a couple of sessions anyway.

It's overcast conditions tomorrow on a pitch that's getting worse, so I don't especially hold out hope.

Especially because if England score another sixty runs, then Pakistan's target is more than the, the inning-- than the runs they scored in their first three innings on this tour combined.

So they-- let alone lose by an innings, they could lose by two inn-innings.

A real chance.

Um, but I mean, was even Abbas's performance a bit of a letdown?

Um, well I want, I want to preface this by saying I, I don't think there was anything particularly egregious about their selection.

It's just when, when they have limited options, there's not too much they can do.

Um, and at the same time, yes, uh, you could say that, but at the same time, that's what else you expect when you've got a 36-year-old, uh, medium fast bowler, um, who all the pressure is on.

He's not there to be a support.

He's not there to bowl five or six overs when the conditions are helpful.

He's just there to plug away relentlessly because the other two seam bowlers they have are just mini-me, slightly worse clones of Abbas.

What, what are Pakistan, uh, clinging to here? Uh, uh, and as well potentially, uh, the return of Babar Azam in fitness pending.

Danyal, please tell me about day three in the space of thirty seconds.

Um, I think the way, uh, the way the game was set up, England had it fairly easy, and they followed that script to a T. Um, they added a few more runs with the tail just for that extra buffer and to get the momentum they wanted.

And then before lunch, Pakistan, Pakistan's top order is fragile.

They've got the second worst partnership over the past two years for the openers.

They lost two wickets early.

Um, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood tried to build a partnership, wasn't, um, and then predictably lost a third wicket just at the stroke of lunch.

Post-lunch, Josh Tongue was rapid.

Mm.

Daniel, would you please tell me about day two of this test match in the space of thirty seconds?

Um, well, we thought we might not have any play to start off, which would have been easier to sum up in thirty seconds.

Um, but, but then halfway through, uh, I, I wouldn't say the sky is clear, it just stopped raining, and it was just, for four and a half hours, it was just about gloomy enough that the light-- the umpires were interested in the light meter, but not quite dark enough for them to stop play.

Once they got on, Root and Cox looked as comfortable as they had the previous day.

Pakistan were absolutely shocking in the field.

There was no pressure whatsoever on the batters.

It's not like Pakistan had runs to play with.

Mm-hmm.

But before we do any pleasantries, I'm gonna ask you to sum up an entire day of test cricket in the space of thirty seconds.

Um, it's not that hard.

Pakistan are vulnerable when it comes to the bat.

Uh, um, when they lost the toss, Salman Aga, who's the stand-in captain for Babar, who's injured, very confidently declared that they would have batted first.

And then they gave you-- they showed you all the reasons why that would have been the wrong decision.

So it was a good toss to lose, but that doesn't mean what they did was any better because they lost their first wicket off the first delivery.

They lost the first two quickly, and then after one partnership, what is a familiar theme for Pakistan, a collapse.

But it-- For, for that moment, I was-- I lived in a dream for that, I don't know, hour and a half or whatever it was, that that partnership was, was building and was looking like, uh, these, these Pakistan players might have come to England and got the, got the hang of the conditions without having much lead-in time and, and were going to be able to put on something special.

[laughs]

... eight in a row.

Having said that, if they look back to historically against England, it used to be a happy hunting ground at one point in the '80s and '90s.

They won five series in a row against them, three over here in England.

They won their last series against England in Pakistan, albeit on very different surfaces to what we're going to get here.

Um, s- I, I guess, I guess you could still call it an opportunity because you s- you have some real quality here in people like Mohammad Abbas, who, who you would expect to do well here.

He's done well.

A famous, famous test