Having snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the 1st Test, today’s batting performance must have left Pakistan’s coaching staff seething. I suppose this would have been mainly to save their own skins as what ever they would have told the players in between the last Test and this one, quite clearly has not worked. It is difficult for the coaching staff to have much effect whilst a match is on going yet in between matches is where they must have an influence. But with four ducks and just three double figure scores (the highest being 39), it seems as if the Pakistani players did not come into this match with a single thought of what had transpired in the last.

Another change to the opening pair saw Fawad Alam come in for Salman Butt. Many had asked for Fawad’s inclusion yet he could only manage 16 runs having being sent in to open which was something he had never done before in an international game. This decision seemed even more bizarre than when Alam was asked to bowl the very important 15th over of the T20 semi-final having not bowled at all in the tournament previously. Sure, Fawad would have been asked if he would like to open today but as a youngster desperate to play for your country, you just say yes, whether its opening or coming in last.

In reality, this was a blatant admission that the squad selection was completely wrong with Butt and Manzoor the only two openers in the squad. With Butt’s poor form coming into the series, it was even more surprising they only selected two specialist openers.

One positive was the innings of Shoaib Malik who had been coming in for some criticism recently. Apart from being one of our best fielders, a decent containing bowler, I think he is very important to our middle order. He remained not out today, scoring 39 having stayed at the crease for more than two hours whilst looking as if he was batting on the same pitch as the Sri Lankans did. His team mates however, did their level best to make a decent pitch seem like it was covered in land mines.

What makes it worse is that Cricinfo has decided to let the jingoistic Sidharth Monga cover the game, and he cannot control himself at the best of times let alone when Pakistan are having a shocker.