‘Is it second division county cricket’: Vaughan hits out at Pakistan batting attack after Lord’s failure

New Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS) Hitting out at Pakistan for their meek surrender in the second Test against England, former English cricketer Michael Vaughan called their batting attack “easiest” to bowl to, dubbing their attack as ‘second division county cricket.’

Pakistan suffered another batting collapse when they were bowled out for just 110 in the first innings of the Lord’s Test. Barring opener Azan Awais, none of their batters managed to reach 20 as they were shot down in a little over one session on Day 2, after the hosts put up 290 batting first..

The former England captain heaped praise on the English bowling attack but lambasted the Pakistani side, calling them the “easiest” batting line-up to bowl to. “Yeah, it is a good attack, and it’s got a huge amount of potential because I think they can all get better. That’s a really good sign for English cricket when you have got four bowlers bowling nicely, but there’s a little bit more in the tank,” Vaughan said on BBC Test Match Special.

“I’ll be brutally honest. The England bowlers aren’t being challenged at all. And this Pakistan batting lineup is possibly the easiest batting lineup I’ve seen in a long time to bowl to. And not only that, I think as a bowler, I think they’re all queuing up to bowl because they know there are wickets out there,” he added.

Awais’ 46 was the only saving grace in an otherwise horrific batting display from the visitors. Of the 10 batters who batted, only Saud Shakeel was the other to reach double-digit score, as Ollie Robinson, Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue ripped through Babar Azam’s team. “You’re not going to get hurt. There’s no batter that’s going to hurt them. No one’s going to damage their figures, and it’s really, ‘roll up, roll up, who wants to get the wickets?'” he quipped.

He further hit out at the opposition, calling their batting attack similar to that seen in second-division English cricket, with bowlers eager to get the ball in their hands and have a crack at them. “I think they all know that Pakistan aren’t going to get big scores. So you’re only going to be out there for 40 to 50 overs, so you give everything in every spell, you keep going to Joe Root saying, Err, I’ll bowl another one.’ There are so many wickets out there,” the former English batter said.

“It’s so easy. They’re still doing a good job, and they’re still looking very threatening. And I think this bowling attack, the way they’re bowling, will challenge better batting lineups if they continue in this fashion. But this is Pakistan batting. Is it second division county cricket? There’s no way that they are batting in any standard to say that, that is a Test match batting lineup,” he added.

Pakistan began their innings early on Day 2 after finally dismissing the final English partnership of 47 runs between Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson. They missed Imam-ul-Haq, who has a calf strain, as Shan Masood opened the batting alongside Awais..

But none of the Pakistani batters showed any fight as they fell like a pack of cards. England came out to bat in the second innings and have put on 81/3, with a lead of 261 runs.

–IANS

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