RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) — England couldn’t grab its opportunities in both test matches. They dropped two crucial catches of Salman Ali Agha in the second test and then in Rawalpindi allowed Pakistan to take 77-run first innings lead after pushing them to 187-7.
The top-order batters also got strangled against Ali and Khan once Harry Brook made a triple hundred and Joe Root scored a career-best 262 in the first test. Ollie Pope, who led in the first test with Stokes still nursing his hamstring injury, finished the series at a disappointing total of only 55 runs in six innings.
Ben Stokes scored 1, 37, 12 and 3 on his return in the last two test matches and his below-par series was summed up when he got out lbw in an awful manner while trying to leave Ali’s arm ball on Saturday.
“We obviously underperformed because we’ve lost the last two games,” Stokes said. “We got our own challenges and we weren’t able to stand up to those challenges for long enough to get the result that we wanted.
“We did it for a very small amount of times throughout the last two games,” he added. “But when you don’t do it for long periods, you’re more than likely going to end up on the wrong side of results, which has definitely happened in these two games.”
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