The Pakistani cricket team is visiting England in a situation where the cricketers have to be confined to a special environment due to Covid-19. They cannot move freely or meet any outsider.
Despite all this, captain Azhar Ali is happy that at least he is getting to play cricket, which he loves so much.
The third and final Test between Pakistan and England begins on Friday in Southampton. England has a one-nil lead in the three-Test series. England won the first Test at Old Trafford by three wickets. The second Test at Southampton was drawn due to rain.
Azhar Ali says that it is not easy to stay in such a situation for two months, but the players are happy with all the facilities provided by the host cricket board and all the cricketers are watching the Turkish drama Ertugrul with great interest in their free time.
He says that ‘there is no player who is not watching this drama.’
Azhar Ali says that the Pakistani team has played good cricket so far in this series.
“Unfortunately we lost the first Test after being in a position to win, but there were many positives in this Test match.
“The second test was affected by bad weather,” he says. We were playing well in this match as well and now the third and final Test is important for us to win it and level the series.’
Azhar considers himself lucky in the sense that his players play as one for the country and make his job easy, so he feels great to captain this team.
Azhar Ali says that if you lose a match you won, it is not easy to get back up again but the way this team played the second Test is admirable that they did not lose heart even though the conditions were very difficult.
‘Not every batsman scores runs all the time’
Azhar Ali says that the pitches have been helpful for the bowlers during the first two Test matches. Earlier in the West Indies England series, there was no continuity in the performance of the batsmen.
The good thing is that Pakistani batsmen have fought. There have been partnerships and the team has scored decently in both the matches. Shaan Masood, Abid Ali, Babar Azam and Rizwan have played well. Not every batsman will score runs in difficult batting conditions but the contribution of some batsman is definitely visible.’
Azhar Ali says that scoring runs as a batsman is his responsibility. Similarly, Asad Shafiq is the team’s match winner. He has scored runs in pressure positions so the effort will be that he and Asad Shafiq score runs in the third Test and win the team.
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2024-09-01 11:51:20
