“Bowling, batting and fielding – England outplayed us,” Agha said. “We were not consistent enough in any department. In England, consistency is important because there is lateral movement here, so you must be focused at all times. That was missing. And we think that missing consistency is what resulted in this performance.”
Agha tried to account for it all by suggesting Pakistan didn’t have enough time to acclimatise in England ahead of the tour. “An England tour is challenging for any Pakistan side,” he said. “We came into it from completely different conditions. It’s not like we came here a month ago; we only came here a week ago. You may have seen a gulf in these sides.
“He is our best batter and one of the best batters in the world. We definitely want to have him and hand him the captaincy”
Salman Agha on Babar Azam
“But when any Asian team comes here, they struggle early on. These conditions are not such you can adapt to within a week. But we’re trying, and you’ll see in the next game we’ll turn in a better performance.”
None of that translated to what transpired at Headingley. It doomed Pakistan to their 14th Test defeat in their last 19 matches, and their ninth in the last ten away games. “We’re not playing well away,” Agha said. “We haven’t done well anywhere in the world. This is concerning. We do talk about that in every meeting we have. Even outside of official team meetings. We are trying.”
The only silver lining came in the form of Babar’s improving prognosis as he recovers from a finger injury, with Agha joking he was “more than happy” to return the captaincy to him after his tough induction to the role. “He’s our best batter and one of the best batters in the world. We definitely want to have him and hand him the captaincy.”
The gloom, though, returned as Agha spoke of Pakistan’s limited options with their seam attack. The visitors went with three medium-fast bowlers, who often struggled to exploit helpful overhead conditions, and there were two big century stands in the England innings, producing a combined yield of 270 runs.
Pakistan’s other seam options are Ubaid Shah and fast-bowling allrounder Aamer Jamal. Ubaid is the quickest bowler on the tour but lacks experience. He only made his debut against West Indies last month, though his average speeds were higher than anyone else in the Pakistan camp.
“If you have pace, it’s good for any conditions. If someone can bowl 140-plus, you’ll definitely add him to your team. We don’t have bowlers who can hit 140 consistently.”
On the evidence of Leeds, it is one of many things Pakistan don’t have. And with the second Test at Lord’s less than a week away, they’re running out of road to conjure them up in time.
