Dreadful day at the office

13 April 2012

Nasser Hussain would be well advised to switch off that famous answerphone of his for a few weeks unless he wants to take some real verbal stick from Steve Waugh.

Up until now, the one-way banter has been purely advertising talk, with the messages from Aussie captain Waugh nothing more than a clever attempt to promote this summer's Ashes series.

The popular television commercials, on behalf of England Test sponsors npower, feature Waugh leaving 'threats' like: "We're going to take you to the cleaners, mate. I just want to offer you the chance to surrender."

After what happened at Old Trafford yesterday, the next message could be: 'Strewth, looks like this is going to be easier than we thought.'

Certainly, any Australian tuning in to the final session of England's Second Test against Pakistan would be entitled to wonder what all the fuss has been about these past few months.

The loss of eight wickets for only 60 runs - four of them to a spinner in not much more than the twinkling of an eye - could have come straight out of any of the six Ashes series between 1989 and 1999.

Even worse, the collapse which sent England hurtling to defeat by 108 runs, was a near carbon copy of what happened during their first innings on Saturday.

Hussain was not there, either to witness the dramatic capitulations or to try to prevent them from happening. A broken thumb is preventing the captain from playing at present while the imminent arrival of his first child sent him home to be with wife Karen late last week.

But last night's defeat, which cancelled out the First Test victory at Lord's and stopped England from winning five series on the trot for the first time in 30 years, will prey on his mind between now and 5 July when the Ashes battle commences at Edgbaston.

It need not upset Hussain too much, however.

For the captain preached all last summer while the West Indies were being beaten and through the winter as first Pakistan and then Sri Lanka went the same way that a team still learning the tough art of Test cricket is bound to experience "bad days in the office" every now and then.

The question is whether England will clock on again in the right frame of mind next month once the triangular one-day series has been completed.

Hussain's return, provided that thumb heals in time, should help no end.

For a start, England need his determined batting in the middle order. And, although acting skipper Alec Stewart does a steady job in charge, the team requires Hussain's more active and innovative style of leadership.

They can also comfort themselves with the fact that Old Trafford has done its stint on the summer Test rota before the Ashes series begins.

Variety and guile are the commodities wanted by bowlers on a pitch as good and as long-lasting as the one prepared in Manchester by groundsman Peter Marron. But whereas Pakistan's attack included a left-handed quickie in Wasim Akram and an unorthodox off-spinner by the name of Saqlain Mushtaq, England fielded four right-arm seamers.

Despite Andrew Caddick's height and Darren Gough's bit of extra pace, they were all much of a muchness at Old Trafford.

Only Trent Bridge is likely to offer a similar surface during the Ashes series. Certainly, Edgbaston, Lord's and Headingley will be a good deal more bowler friendly and England always have a chance - even against Australia - when that is the case.

"You have to take things like this on the chin," said batsman Graham Thorpe after Pakistan's dramatic victory. "We've lost a game, and that's disappointing, but we haven't lost the series and we are still playing good cricket."

Yesterday's was very good for the thick end of four hours. But England must learn from what went wrong.

Once their always remote victory chance had disappeared by mid-afternoon, they seemed to slip too deeply into survival mode, thereby allowing Pakistan to dictate and build pressure.

Then, from the moment Thorpe was third out, three overs after tea and with the new ball just taken, they were so deeply stuck in a rut that no one was likely to dig an escape route.

Australia would have polished them off from that position and so did Pakistan, deservedly as well, even if the luck that had been against the visitors suddenly swung a touch too fully in their favour.

It was a feature of England's triumphant winter that the lower order continually contributed valuable runs. But not at Old Trafford and the selectors will be anxious to avoid going into another Test this summer with a bottom four reading: Dominic Cork, Caddick, Gough and Matthew Hoggard.

The key to that situation is held by Craig White or, rather, by the medical folk who are trying to ease him into bowling again after his early-season back trouble.

Hussain will be on the phone this week, no doubt, to inquire about the Yorkshire allrounder's progress; always assuming he can get Waugh off the line.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in