The third and final Test of the series between Pakistan and England kicked-off on Thursday in Rawalpindi. After England had came out victorious in the first Test, the spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan guided the hosts to a big victory in the second Test.
The 2 spinners absolutely shattered the England batters and picked up all the 20 wickets between them. While Noman picked up 11, Sajid picked up rest of the 9 scalps.
After England won the toss and opted to bat first, Pakistan skipper Shan Masood wasted no time in bringing on the spinners. In fact, the first over of the match was bowled by Sajid while the second over was bowled by Noman.
This is the first time that spinners have bowled the first 2 overs of the first innings of a Test on Pakistan soil and only the 4th time that such a thing has happened in red-ball cricket history.
The first time that spinners ended up bowling the first 2 overs of a Test happened back in 1964 when India faced-off against England in Kanpur.
The second time this happened was during a match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Mirpur in 2018. Finally, the third match where this happened was during Bangladesh’s clash against Afghanistan in Chattogram in 2019.
After dominating on the Multan pitch in the second Test, it will be interesting to see how the Pakistan spinners will perform against the English batters in Rawalpindi.
