Former England pacer Stuart Broad reckoned that Pakistan batters need to produce big knocks to defeat England in their own backyard. Notably, Pakistan suffered an innings defeat in the first Test to England.
Speaking to Jos Buttler in a ‘For the Love of Cricket’ podcast, Broad said that a 250-run knock from Babar Azam would put Pakistan in a good spot in the second Test at the Home of Cricket, which is scheduled to start on Thursday, August 27.
“But yeah, Pakistan will need a big change of luck to threaten England in the second test. And they can. Babar Azam could get 250… when you’ve got those sort of players in there. And that’s what they’ll have to hope for,” Stuart Broad said to Jos Buttler in a ‘For the Love of Cricket’ video.
For the unversed, Babar Azam was ruled out of the first Test due to an injury to his right-hand finger, which he sustained during the warm-up match in Beckenham. Notably, this was the same hand that had already troubled him earlier this month during the Test series against West Indies.
“Babar Azam might be playing. We’ve just done a segment on him not playing, but no, he wasn’t playing. He had a bruised hand. I’m sure he’ll come back in at Lord’s. They hav e to. They have to bring him back. They look very, very fragile as a batting group. And he’s their best player,” he added.
“I think Lord’s will be very, very keen to have a batter-friendly surface. If it’s like it did against New Zealand, where they had, you know, Latham, Ravindra, Williamson, Mitchell, Blundell. I mean, this game could one-daye day game. So they’re going to try and make it flatter,” he concluded.
Pakistan will enter the second Test on the back of an innings and 103-run defeat to England in the first Test.
