‘We’re making the same mistakes’: Saud Shakeel rues Pakistan’s batting failures against England

Birmingham: Pakistan batter Saud Shakeel admitted his team had been repeating the same mistakes with the bat after another poor display left them in trouble against England in the third Test at Edgbaston.

Pakistan were bowled out for just 136 off 33.5 overs after being asked to bat first, with their top order once again failing to put up a fight. Shakeel, Pakistan’s leading run-scorer in the series, said the team needed to show greater patience and fight through difficult periods.

“It’s depressing; we’re making the same mistake as a batting unit. "We're getting out in bunches, and there were lots of soft dismissals today,” Shakeel said, as quoted by Cricinfo.

“We’re trying, but yes, it’s frustrating that we keep making the same mistakes. I don’t think it’s a confidence issue. If you don’t have the confidence to play at this level, then you don’t deserve to play here. But in difficult conditions, poor form can be quite hard to break out of,” he added.

Shakeel has been the only Pakistani batter to consistently score runs in the series. He has scored 175 runs in four innings, while none of his teammates have reached the 100-run mark.

Pakistan have already lost the first two Tests and are now in a difficult position in the ongoing third game at Edgbaston.

Shakeel said Pakistan had an important opportunity to build a partnership after losing the toss and being asked to bat in overcast conditions.

“The pitch will improve as the Test goes on, but early on, there was juice in it. The toss isn’t in our hands, but we lost it and batted first, and the overcast conditions favoured England there,” he said.

“That was an opportunity to strike up a partnership because the pitch improved as the day went on. With the new ball, even England’s top order struggled, so it was important to see off the new ball,” he added.

Pakistan’s first five batters had a poor showing and failed to reach double figures, marking the first time their top five had failed to score 10 or more in a Test first innings in England.

Shakeel once again demonstrated his ability to adapt to the conditions and situation. After scoring 140 runs across his last two innings, he said he had changed his approach as wickets continued to fall around him.

“I try to play according to the demands of any situation. With wickets falling around me, the best option for me was to make as many runs as I could. So I was batting quicker to adjust to the situation around me,” he said.

The left-hander also admitted that Pakistan had been surprised by the level of assistance available to the bowlers during the series.

“The conditions were challenging, especially at Lord’s. Over there, even someone like Joe Root struggled and has had a difficult series. I was surprised with the conditions here,” Shakeel said.

“If you look at the New Zealand series and compare it to this one, there is a lot of lateral movement here. We are not used to that, perhaps. But we were trying our best. We accept our batting failures, but the conditions are also in favour of the bowlers,” he added.

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