 Pakistan's batting has struggled on their tour of England |
Pakistan are going to have an awful lot of soul-searching to do after the Trent Bridge Test. They have got to be looking at the way they are playing at the moment and seriously worrying about how they are going to fare in this series as a whole unless they sort out their batting against the swinging ball and their fielding behind the wicket. As we saw once again in the evening session, their confidence is shot against the moving ball. They have no idea how to play it. It's a legacy, to an extent of their not being able to play Test cricket at home and it makes it all the more essential that all the ICC countries do their bit to try to stage Pakistan Test matches. These young players have got to learn how to play in Test cricket, how to set their stall out and build an innings. They have been rumbled by the ball that has swung more than they have probably ever seen before. If it is this batch of Duke balls that is swinging, and they are using the same batch throughout the series, then they are going to have great difficulty. The other major difference between the sides is fielding. In key areas like slip catching, England are superbly drilled but Pakistan look all at sea. There isn't much difference between the way the two sides have bowled, but the support for Pakistan's bowlers was negligible behind the wicket, while England have been magnificent. There's been a lot of talk about bringing back one of their more senior players like Younus Khan but that would be a big call.  | 606: DEBATE |
They can only bring Younus back into the fold if they feel that is going to have a positive influence on the squad as a whole and I think they will think very long and hard before they do that. We have seen Pakistan teams in the past go to pieces when the chips are down but at least this side seems to be keeping their chins up even when things are going badly wrong. For some reason, people have been talking about Matt Prior's position in the team, but he's a very fine cricketer who has worked very hard at his game. His keeping 18 months ago was not very good and he wasn't scoring the runs that he should have been, but I know as a commentator that the references I make to Prior's wicketkeeping now are almost always positive. He has really worked hard at that side of his game and today was a reminder of how he can bat. Prior would not have got close to a hundred without a fine contribution from the tail-enders, especially Steven Finn, who put in an excellent effort to see Prior through to his hundred. England needed those runs from the tail to pull them through and there are definite problems at the top of the order. Alastair Cook again failed with poor technique. His balance was over to the off side, his head was nowhere near the ball, so he played the ball miles away from his body. It's unlucky to be caught down the leg side, but he didn't help himself. Kevin Pietersen seemed to be battling through but aimed a very ambitious shot at a ball that wasn't there. The two people we have been talking about form-wise with the batting appear to have a problem at the moment and there is enough there to keep people looking at that top order. Jonathan Agnew was talking to BBC Sport's Sam Sheringham
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