The Pakistan cricket team hasn’t had the best of outings with the bat so far in the first Test match against Sri Lanka at the Galle International Stadium. They suffered a batting collapse and were reduced to eight-five with seven wickets down. Dismal performance by their batters has put them in a spot of bother in the second innings on Sunday, July 17.
In the first innings, Pakistan bowled Sri Lanka out for 222 runs on the back of a solid performance by the bowling unit. Shaheen Afridi was the pick of the bowlers, with four wickets for fifty-eight runs. However, Pakistan’s top-order batters have let them down in response to Sri Lanka’s first innings total. Their top three in the batting order, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, and Azhar Ali were all both dismissed for low scores.
Mohammed Rizwan tried to build a partnership, however, he too could not contribute much for Pakistan. Sri Lanka’s Prabath Jayasuriya has been the biggest threat to Pakistan batters. He has taken five wickets so far in his debut match for Sri Lanka in Test cricket. Meanwhile, Kasun Rajith and Ramesh Mendis have taken one wicket each in the innings.
Pakistan are 104-7 at lunch on Day Two 🍽️
Skipper @babarazam258 holds the key in the second session as we trail by 118 runs 🏏#SLvPAK | #BackTheBoysInGreen pic.twitter.com/kxUqBEaXGR
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) July 17, 2022
Babar Azam has been the lone fighter for Pakistan so far in the innings. He kept one end solid, as the wickets kept trembling for Pakistan from the other end. The visitors were 104 for seven at the Lunch break, with Babar and Yasir Shah at the crease, trailing 118 runs in the second innings.
Let’s take a look at how the fans reacted to Pakistan’s batting collapse:
No comments on Pakistan’s batting so far. Babar has again proven that he is a great batsman. We didn’t play frontline spinners, & even reduced our batting prowess. It’s not to favour anyone however there were better choices benched. Still much left in the Test.
— Dr. Nauman Niaz (@DrNaumanNiaz) July 17, 2022
Extremely worst combination when it comes to Pakistan batting..
This Sri Lankan pitch is not same as Karachi, Lahore or Pindi, Galle's pitch is totally spin friendly..@SarfarazA_54 and @iamfawadalam25 are the best players of handling spin..#PAKvSL 🇵🇰🇱🇰— Asad Abbas (اسد عباس) 🇵🇰 (@AsadAbbas4ever) July 17, 2022
Pakistan's Batting Line Up.#PAKvSL pic.twitter.com/EWyMacmEia
— Vecna. (@zee_tronn) July 17, 2022
Pakistan had done poor batting and lost bunch of wickets together, still they're trail by much of runs and already seven wickets are falled. #PAKvAUS
— Manavdeep Singh (@CricvocateManav) July 17, 2022
So pakistan at 104-7 at lunch..nothing new just babar Azam holding the batting as usual from one end.
— Archer (@poserarcher) July 17, 2022
Batting order looks fragile. Pakistan perhaps playing a pacer too many for Galle. Should have gone in with two quicks and two spinners and played an extra batsman. Fawad being a lhb would have been handy facing Jayasuriya.
— Ashar Jawad (@AsharJawad) July 17, 2022
In this age when England is looking to introduce version 2 of test cricket, Pakistan is stuck in clueless, pathetic & defensive batsmanship. Cherry on top bizzare selection like dropping a specialist batsman and playing a newbie allrounder when there was no need of it.#PAKvSL
— Usama Ata (@Usama_Ata) July 17, 2022
If Sri take a lead of even 50 runs that will be enough to win a test match…
Remember Pakistan has just 1 regular spinner.#PAKvSL— Hassan Yousaf (@hassan_yousaf9) July 17, 2022
What's wrong with Pakistan team management, sending Shaheen over Yasir Shah who has scored a test century. What made them to drop Fawad and should have gone with a regular spinner in place of Nawaz. #SLvPAK
— Cricket Memes (@cricmemes_) July 17, 2022
Pakistan Test Team is playing T20
92 runs 7 out 🙄🙄— Fahmidah Yousfi (@fahmidahyousfi) July 17, 2022
Babar Azam completes 10000 runs in International cricket
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has achieved yet another milestone in international cricket. He completed 10000 runs in international cricket during Day 2 of the ongoing first Test match against Sri Lanka. The right-handed batter became the 11th Pakistan cricketer to achieve the feat.
Babar Azam reached the milestone in 228 innings, becoming the fifth fastest to the landmark. He surpassed Virat Kohli in the list of the fastest Asian batter to score 10000 runs international runs. Virat Kohli took 232 innings to reach 10000 international runs.
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