England captain Ben Stokes has shared that his side were not able to respond to the challenges Pakistan threw at them in the last two Test matches as well. After losing the first Test by an innings and 47 runs, Pakistan bounced back in the three-Test series to beat England 2-1 following their decision to play the last two games on rank turners as well. England lost by 152 runs on a recycled pitch for the second Multan Test and lost at Rawalpindi by nine wickets in less than seven sessions as well.

“The last couple of Tests, we have been thrown some challenges and I think it is pretty easy to assess that we were not able to stand up to them,” he said. “The great thing about sport is that those challenges will always come along but in the last two games we weren’t able to match what Pakistan threw at us… It’s incredibly disappointing to lose a Test match.”

However, Sajid’s innings was important as he hit four sixes in his undefeated run-a-ball knock. When England’s Ben Duckett hit him for consecutive fours at the start of the England innings as the sunset at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, Sajid changed the pace and trapped him in front.

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“Last night, Sajid came out and played – he took some massive risks when we’d taken that wicket of Noman,” Stokes said about the turning point in the match. “Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t and fortunately for Pakistan, it paid off with the way he played. Ten or 15 runs on these kind of wickets are always massive and the way he came out and really took on our spinners was a huge moment in the game.”

However, there are calls for England to drop opener Zak Crawley and vice-captain Ollie Pope after a string of low scores. But, Stokes backed them saying “there is no doubt in my mind that we have the best top six batters in England. You can’t shut the door on everything,” he said. “Then you are being single-minded to what you want to do. But back to what I said before, there is no doubt in my mind that we have the best top six batters in England.”

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However, England’s next Test assignment will be in New Zealand.

“We’ve got a very quick turnaround (two weeks) to another challenge in New Zealand so we’ve got to put the disappointment of the last two games behind us and move on,” he concluded.