By: MOHSIN ALI<\/p>\n
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan captain Babar Azam is set to return to the playing XI for the second Test against England at Lord\u2019s after completing a positive training session, bowling coach Umar Gul said.<\/p>\n
According to Cricinfo, Babar has been recovering from a finger injury suffered during Pakistan\u2019s tour of the West Indies and aggravated when he was struck on the same finger during a practice match at Beckenham.<\/p>\n
Gul said Babar batted for a full session in the nets, facing fast bowlers, spinners and throwdowns, and looked in good form.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are hopeful he will be available for the game. He looked good today and batted well in the nets,\u201d Gul said.<\/p>\n
Babar\u2019s return would be a major boost for Pakistan, whose batting struggled badly in the first Test at Headingley. England bowled Pakistan out twice in less than 86 overs, leaving the visitors with plenty to improve ahead of the second Test.<\/p>\n
Babar was Pakistan\u2019s leading run-scorer in the preceding Test series against the West Indies, scoring 193 runs in four innings, including two half-centuries.<\/p>\n
His return is also expected to bring a change at the top of Pakistan\u2019s batting order. Azan Awais is likely to make way, while either Shan Masood or Abdullah Shafique could move up to open. Babar is expected to bat at No. 4 and resume the captaincy.<\/p>\n
The second Test will be the first time Babar leads Pakistan in England. He was reappointed captain before the West Indies series after initially taking charge of the national side following Pakistan\u2019s previous tour of England in 2020.<\/p>\n
Babar has a strong record in England, averaging 65.75 in six Test innings, with three half-centuries. Against England overall, he averages 53.83 in 14 innings and has scored a fifty or century in half of those innings.<\/p>\n
However, Gul cautioned that Pakistan could not depend solely on Babar\u2019s return and urged the team to improve in all departments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will have to learn from the mistakes we made in the previous game. To win a Test match, you have to perform in all departments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gul stressed that Pakistan\u2019s bowlers would have a particularly important role in the conditions at Lord\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil you take 20 wickets, you cannot win a Test match,\u201d he said, adding that the players had trained with full intensity and were confident of bouncing back in the second Test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: MOHSIN ALI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan captain Babar Azam is set to return to the playing XI for the second Test against England at Lord\u2019s after completing a positive training session, bowling coach Umar Gul said. According to Cricinfo, Babar has been recovering from a finger injury suffered during Pakistan\u2019s tour of the West Indies and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":20609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}