England find themselves in an extremely strong position after what was, from them, a fine opening day's work in the second Test against Pakistan. But what we witnessed at Edgbaston was a pitiful advert for Test cricket, with Pakistan bowled out for 72 and England already well ahead with the bat with eight wickets in hand. People might have a bit of a snigger, watching England romping to victory and laughing at how hopeless Pakistan with the bat and with their catching. But it's not worth paying £65 a ticket to come here and watch it, especially with this great hulking stand they are building, and despite the reduced capacity the rows of empty seats are not good for anybody. If this match continues the way it is going, there is no way thousands of people will fork out £90 or more to see a day's play at The Oval, where the next match will be.  England had plenty to celebrate on day one at Edgbaston |
Not everybody agreed with me but I was adamant at the start that the team winning the toss should bowl first. In Pakistan's case, it was not just the cloudy conditions that suggested inserting the opposition but the psychological impact that their bowlers might make. Pakistan have a strong bowling attack and if they had managed to hustle out England they could have seized the initiative. It was clear the ball would nip around so I was astonished both captains were keen to bat first, and I am afraid Pakistan paid the price for not putting England in. Days like this are not good for Pakistan, who are not learning from their mistakes. They are batting poorly, dropping catches and look shot. They do not really help themselves: there was an unhelpful self-inflicted background to this match was the shenanigans involving the recall to the squad of batsman Mohammad Yousuf and suddenly dropping Danish Kaneria. On the one hand we feel some sympathy for a young team who are battling in alien conditions and yet two Tests ago they beat Australia at Headingley. What they are lacking is experience, and Yousuf could have provided that. But whether he could really have done himself justice without any time to prepare is another matter. It's like a bowler who knows he is not 100% fit going into a match, but because his team need him to play he does play and breaks down after 10 overs, leaving them in the lurch. I cannot see how Yousuf could have performed to the best of his abilities.  | 606: DEBATE |
Kamran Akmal has had a very poor run recently with dropped catches so Pakistan were right to change their wicketkeeper, but his replacement Zulqarnain Haider proceeded to drop an important one himself. The problem is this: if they had left Akmal in the team and he had dropped another one the selectors would have looked pretty silly. Still, we have to reflect on another good day for England. I like the fields being set. They are not over ambitious, they do not automatically have three slips for example. The idea is to create control, and thereby pressure by bowling maidens as they will have to do in Australia. Batsmen feel under pressure when they are forced to play out a string of maidens and you really feel the screw tightening all the time. Of the two England batsmen who began this match under pressure to perform, Kevin Pietersen had a good result in reaching 36 not out, while Alastair Cook - who played a poor shot and fell for 17 - did not. Cook has been here before: he suffers a lot of dips in form and then he will get a hundred. But it has been suggested that if Marcus Trescothick had been available for England in the last four years Cook would not have played a Test, and there might be some truth in that. Pietersen had some massive strokes of luck, not least surviving two dropped chances by the time he had reached 20, one of them as result of dreadful shot selection. He is still playing too ambitiously; every batsman needs to knuckle down and graft out a decent score and you know he is not in the right place at the moment. He will probably get a hundred now, but his shot selection is wrong. Jonathan Agnew was speaking to BBC Sport's Oliver Brett
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