How Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum’s England is making Test cricket interesting

The
astonishing
fact
of
this
series
has
been
England
have
scored
runs
at
a
rapid
pace
in
both
matches.
In
the
first
match,
they
created
history
by
scoring
most
runs
in
a
day
of
the
test
match,
and
they
continued
their
rapid
scoring
prowess
in
the
second
one
as
well.
We
will
get
to
that
later.

PAK
vs
ENG
Multan
Test:
As
it
happened

England
posted
281
runs
in
the
first
inning
mainly
courtesy
of
Ben
Duckett
(63)
and
Ollie
Pope
(60).
Captain
Ben
Stokes
also
had
a
start
but
failed
to
convert
while
Mark
Wood
smashed
a
quick-fire
36
to
take
England
beyond
250.
24-year-old
debutant
spinner
Abrar
Ahmed
picked
up
7
wickets
in
his
debut
match.

But
Pakistan
failed
to
consolidate
on
that
as
they
managed
only
202
runs
in
their
first
inning.
Despite
some
decent
batting
by
Babar
Azam
(75)
and
Saud
Shakeel
(63),
they
lost
their
last
8
wickets
in
just
60
runs
to
concede
a
79
runs
lead
to
the
visitors.
Jack
Leach
picked
up
4
wickets
for
England.

Harry
Brook
slams
ton
in
2nd
innings

In
their
second
inning,
Harry
Brook
scored
a
fantastic
108
as
England
amassed
275
runs
on
the
board,
with
a
healthy
lead
of
354.
Abrar
Ahmed
starred
again
with
the
ball,
this
time
picking
up
4
wickets.

Pakistan
put
up
a
Fight
in
Run
Chase

Pakistan
needed
355
runs
to
level
the
series.
Abdullah
Shafique
(45)
and
Mohammed
Rizwan
(30)
both
had
starts,
but
Mark
Wood
and
James
Anderson
scalped
their
wickets
respectively
to
put
the
home
side
under
pressure.
Skipper
Babar
Azam
also
failed
cheaply
as
Ollie
Robinson
cleaned
up
his
stumps
when
the
star
was
just
on
1.

Saud
Shakeel
and
Imam-ul-Haq
steadied
the
ship
but
wickets
kept
on
falling
in
regular
intervals
for
Pakistan.
Shakeel
was
cleaned
up
by
Mark
Wood
just
six
runs
from
his
century,
and
that
put
a
significant
dent
to
Pakistan’s
run
chase.
With
64
runs
still
needed
with
3
wickets
in
hand,
the
hosts
managed
to
score
only
37
runs
and
bundled
out
26
runs
short
of
their
target.

Ben
Stokes
and
Brendon
McCullum
Making
Test
cricket
interesting

Ben
Stokes
and
Brendon
McCullum
are
making
a
radical
change
to
the
approach
while
playing
the
longest
format
of
the
game.
Brendon
McCullum,
the
England
coach,
was
known
to
be
one
of
the
most
aggressive
players
in
his
playing
days,
and
we
are
seeing
a
reflection
of
that
in
his
coaching
tenure
as
well.

England
have
scored
runs
well
over
5
runs
per
over
in
the
series
so
far,
which
is
a
brand-new
style
of
play.
The
aggressiveness
from
their
batters,
and
scoring
runs
faster
than
the
usual
test
regime
are
quite
clearly
making
the
game
a
lot
more
interesting
to
the
viewers.

In
the
second
test,
England
scored
at
4.83
runs
per
over.
In
the
first
inning
of
the
first
test,
their
run
rate
was
6.50
as
they
managed
657
runs
in
just
101
overs.
These
astonishing
stats
show
the
motto
of
their
vision,
which
is
playing
test
cricket
in
the
limited
overs
way,
breaking
the
age-old
concept
of
watchful
and
slow
batting
demeanour
of
test
cricket.

This
ploy
so
far
has
worked
for
England.
Players
like
Zak
Crawley,
Ben
Duckett,
Harry
Brook
and
others
have
executed
their
plans
excellently.
Although
the
Pakistan
pitch
is
comparably
easier
to
bat
on,
it
has
to
be
seen
whether
England
stick
with
the
same
vision
against
more
onerous
opponents
in
tougher
conditions.
But
the
message
from
McCullum
and
co.
is
clear
and
exciting.