Former England captain Nasser Hussain has shared his concern for the team’s bowlers and their downtime during the first Test against Pakistan. He added that as the batters scored runs very quickly on Day 2 (October 8) of the first Test at Multan as well. The England bowlers struggled hard on a flat track with little assistance for pacers and spinners.

Hussain said on Sky Sports after the second day’s play: “In this Bazball era, they get their runs so quickly that the bowlers are on and off the field so fast and they aren’t having as much rest as they are used to have in previous times. It’s something to keep an eye out in this heat. For England, they need to get as close as possible, and for Pakistan, just make sure you bowl England out and try to push on and win.”

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“The only thing I would say in this part of the world is be careful for two reasons. One, you can have two first innings that are very similar and then in your third innings you don’t know whether to stick or twist. And two, in this part of the world, the game moves very, very slowly and then suddenly on day five it starts doing peculiar things off those cracks or it starts spinning. The key for England will be to get as close as possible and by doing that you give the bowlers a rest and the second time round, they have got the energy levels to bowl the opposition out,” he further added.

However, Nasser Hussain also applauded the visitors’ efforts over the first two days despite Pakistan scoring over 550 in their first innings, keeping the nature of the Multan pitch in mind.

“Apart from 15 minutes either side of tea when England looked absolutely exhausted, I thought they did really well. How can you say that when the opposition got 556 and there’s three scores of hundreds in there? You have to look at how England have gone out to bat,” said Hussain again. “It’s a flat wicket, maybe five balls of swing for Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi but there’s been no reverse-swing.Test cricket can’t afford this pitch to be like this for five days, no wonder no-one is in.”