OPINION
Follow UsThe good news for Australia is that they are still alive in this contest. For all of Pakistan’s utter dominance on the first day, the score is not out of the visitors’ reach yet. A spirited showing in the morning session of Day 2 will bring the Aussies right back into the contest and make the game 50-50 again.
The bad news is that it is simply impossible to picture Australia taking 9 more wickets and bowling Pakistan out.
In a way, it’s hard not to feel for the Kangaroos. It is hard enough playing Test cricket in Asia after a 1233-day gap, but today in Rawalpindi, the Aussies lost the toss and were asked to bowl on one of the flattest wickets dished out in recent times.
There is no denying that both Imam-ul-Haq and Azhar Ali were stupendously good - we’ll get to their brilliance in a while - but the bottom line is that Day 1 of the Rawalpindi Test was witness to an absolute road. It offered a below-average purchase for Lyon, and the conditions were so anti-pace that there was no bounce, no pace, no lateral movement, and no reverse on offer.
Pat Cummins, the number one bowler in the world and arguably the best seamer of the past five years, induced a mere 12% false shots - compared to the 21% he averaged in the first innings since 2018 - and was, at times, reduced to being a mere bowling machine. You know a wicket is flat when Pat Cummins is struggling to extract anything out of it.
But as flat as the Rawalpindi wicket was, what is also true is that Australia made life maddeningly difficult for themselves by going in with three quicker bowlers and a sole specialist spinner.
Cummins’ move to introduce the part-time off-spin of Travis Head into the attack as early as the 17th over of the Test pretty much suggested that he knew within an hour into the day that he’d messed up. That Head, Labuschagne, and Smith, between them, bowled 10% of the overs on the first day was direct evidence that the Aussie XI was crying for another specialist spinner.
There is no guarantee that an extra spinner would have provided Australia with the missing cutting edge, for Lyon himself was largely ineffective post the first two hours. The off-spinner, in fact, was more expensive than all the specialist seamers and induced fewer false shots than both Starc and Cummins. However, the inclusion of an additional specialist spinner - be it the left-arm spin of Agar or the leg-spin of Swepson - would have certainly added to the attack more variety, something that was non-existent on the first day.
The absolute lack of help for pacers meant that the threat of the quicker bowlers was completely neutralized, leaving Lyon with everything to do. And while the off-spinner did fare well in patches, he simply was not able to pose a sustained threat. The part-timers posed no danger whatsoever, and it was pretty much a feast for Pakistan every time Cummins used the seamers in tandem. If nothing, the inclusion of a second specialist spinner would have forced Pakistan to solve a slightly different problem, notwithstanding its difficulty.
As we ponder what ‘might’ have happened, though, it is equally important that we revisit what actually happened and give full credit to the trio of Imam-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, and Abdullah Shafique. That the hosts find themselves in the position they are in, just one more good session away from being immune to defeat, is completely down to the brilliance of the Pakistani top-order, which was close to impenetrable on the day.
Undoubtedly Pakistan were lucky to have won the toss on a batting paradise, but the batters did not put a foot wrong; the Aussie bowlers did not have a sniff throughout the day, with the only wicket coming via an unforced error from the bat of Shafique.
The 100-run opening stand set the tone for the day, and it was Shafique that landed the first punch. The bowlers were marginally on top after the first 10 overs - conceding just 14 runs - but Shafique injected momentum into the innings by scoring 20 off 20 balls between the 11th and 17th over. The straight six he smacked off Lyon in the 11th over ended up foreshadowing proceedings on the day.
The day, though, completely belonged to Imam-ul-Haq, who marked his second coming to the Test side with a flawless maiden ton. In his first stint with the side Imam struggled to pile on the runs like he did in ODI cricket, but today the southpaw was immaculate, bringing to the fore the form he showcased in the 2021/22 Qaid-E-Azam season, where he averaged 106.20.
After a nervous start, managing just 7 off his first 41 balls, Imam got going with a dangerous slash off the bowling of Cummins. As soon as he got the first boundary away, though, the southpaw became close to invincible. After batting with a control percentage of 75.6% in his first 41 balls, Imam batted with a staggering control of 93.9% in his last 230 balls on Day 1, playing just 6% false shots.
What defined the day was how he negated the threat of Lyon by using his feet. Imam danced down the wicket against Lyon as many as 17 times and collected 29 runs, 12 of them coming via humongous sixes. The southpaw also did not spare the part-timers, smashing 25 off the 29 balls he faced off Head and Labuschagne. Post the initial stutter, Australia simply were not able to trouble him at the slightest.
The masterclass the comeback-man displayed on the first day has now left the Aussies with a monumental task. Cummins & Co. walked into the series full of optimism, but 90 overs in, they are playing catch-up already.
Needless to say, there is room for improvement from the visitors’ side. But for this game to witness a drastic turnaround, the Aussies will need plenty of help from the Pakistan batters, particularly given the state of the pitch. If Day 1 is any evidence to go by, however, the Kangaroos, in all likelihood, will be on their own on Saturday.
