Pakistan’s struggles in England have deepened after their batting collapsed for 110 in the first innings of the Lord’s Test, prompting a brutal assessment from former England captain Michael Vaughan.Pakistan arrived at Lord’s hoping for a response after being beaten by an innings and 53 runs in the opening Test. The return of regular captain Babar Azam had also provided some optimism, but his comeback did little to change the visitors’ fortunes.Babar managed only eight runs, while Abdullah Shafique (5), Shan Masood (1) and Mohammad Rizwan (7) all fell cheaply. Opener Azan Awais offered some resistance with 46, but Pakistan were bowled out for just 110.Vaughan was scathing in his assessment of the Pakistan batting line-up, arguing that England’s bowlers were operating without any real fear of being punished.“I’ll be brutally honest. The England bowlers aren’t being challenged at all. And this Pakistan batting lineup is possibly the easiest batting lineup I’ve seen in a long time to bowl to. And not only that, I think as a bowler, I think they’re all queuing up to bowl because they know there are wickets out there,” Vaughan said on the BBC Test Match Special.“You’re not going to get hurt. There’s no batter that’s going to hurt them. No one’s going to damage their figures, and it’s really, ‘roll up, roll up, who wants to get the wickets?’,” he added.The former England skipper continued his criticism by questioning whether Pakistan’s current batting unit was even of Test-match standard.With England’s bowlers repeatedly finding breakthroughs, Vaughan suggested the visitors had made life remarkably easy for the hosts.“I think they all know that Pakistan aren’t going to get big scores. So you’re only going to be out there for 40 to 50 overs, so you give everything in every spell, you keep going to Joe Root saying, Err, I’ll bowl another one.’ There are so many wickets out there,” said Vaughan.He then made a particularly harsh comparison, suggesting Pakistan’s batting resembled a second-division county side rather than an international Test team.“It’s so easy. They’re still doing a good job, and they’re still looking very threatening. And I think this bowling attack, the way they’re bowling, will challenge better batting lineups if they continue in this fashion. But this is Pakistan batting. Is it second division county cricket? There’s no way that they are batting in any standard to say that, that is a Test match batting lineup,” he added.Pakistan’s batting woes have been compounded by the absence of opener Imam-ul-Haq, who did not bat in the first innings after suffering a calf strain while fielding at Lord’s.England capitalised on Pakistan’s collapse to take a commanding position in the Test. The hosts finished the second day on 81/3 in their second innings, extending their overall lead to 261 runs.After Pakistan’s innings ended inside 38 overs, England remain firmly in control of the second Test and have put the visitors under immense pressure to produce a turnaround in the remainder of the match.
