England on Thursday resumed their innings from 492-3 on the fourth day of the first Test with Joe Root eyeing a double century after reaching a key personal milestone the day earlier during the match being played at the Multan Cricket Stadium.
With Root and Harry Brook on the crease with 176* and 141* to their names, respectively, the visitors trail by 64 runs in the first innings against Pakistan’s 556-run total.
With the visitors aiming to surpass the national side’s total today, the Shan Masood-led side faced a setback as the team’s leg-spinner Abrar Ahmad didn’t come out on the field due to fever.
The spinner has so far been wicketless in his 35 overs where he conceded 174 runs.
Furthermore, the team also missed out on dismissing Root as Babar Azam dropped a sitter as the right-handed batter attempted a pull shot on the leg side off Naseem Shah’s bowling.
Starting out at 32* a day earlier, Root went on to surpass his former teammate and skipper Alastair Cook’s tally of 12,472 runs.
After Root, Brook completed his century in the 84th over with eight fours and one six. It was Brook’s sixth Test ton and fourth against Pakistan — which came off 118 balls.
Before that, the English side lost Zak Crawley for 78 inside the first hour when the opener flicked one from Shaheen Afridi to Aamer Jamal at mid-wicket.
That abruptly ended the 109-run stand for the second wicket but England were in no mood to slow down.
Playing XI
Pakistan: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmad
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir
