'Bizarre cricket': Nasser Hussain slams Mohammad Rizwan for exposing Pakistan tailender in humiliating loss vs England

'Bizarre cricket': Nasser Hussain slams Mohammad Rizwan for exposing Pakistan tailender in humiliating loss vs England originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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Nasser Hussain criticised Mohammad Rizwan for exposing Pakistan's tail at Headingley.

The senior batter took a single off the first ball, leaving the No. 9 to face Ollie Robinson.

England thrashed Pakistan by an innings and 103 runs inside three days.

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Nasser Hussain slams Mohammad Rizwan for exposing Pakistan tailender in humiliating loss vs England

Pakistan's first Test in England ended in humiliation at Headingley, with Joe Root's side completing an innings and 103-run victory before tea on the third day. Amid the wreckage, Nasser Hussain reserved his sharpest criticism for a moment of carelessness from one of the tourists' most experienced players.

The former England captain took aim at Mohammad Rizwan for taking a single off the first ball of an over while batting with the lower order, handing Khurram Shahzad five deliveries to survive against Ollie Robinson. The No. 9 was duly dismissed.

It was a small moment in a match full of Pakistani errors, but Hussain felt it summed up the lack of thought that has come to define the tourists' batting. Pakistan were bowled out for 171 and 135, surrendering the match in just the 85.4 overs.

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MORE: 'Pakistan's worst Test side in 50 years': English media rips apart Salman Ali Agha & Co.

What Nasser Hussain said about Mohammad Rizwan's approach

Hussain argued that a batter with Rizwan's experience should have known better than to leave the tail exposed to a bowler operating in rhythm. "Bizarre cricket. When you're batting with the No. 9, Rizwan has played 46 Test matches and is a senior batter out there. To expose the tail to five balls from Robinson makes no sense," Hussain said.

The criticism carried weight given that Rizwan was Pakistan's most productive batter across the match. He top-scored with 41 in the second innings, striking at better than a run a ball, before being bowled by Gus Atkinson to leave the tourists on the brink at 131 for 9.

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His own dismissal in the first innings had been similarly rash, top-edging a slog-sweep in only his second ball at the crease, before being trapped lbw by Josh Tongue with a review returning umpire's call on both impact and wickets.

MORE: 'Need batters with good technique': Ex-India star pinpoints why Pakistan are struggling with the bat in ENG vs PAK Tests

Why the error mattered in a match Pakistan never contested

England's pace attack made the margins irrelevant in the end. Robinson took 8 for 80 across the match to earn the player of the match award, Meanwhile, Tongue finished his own 8-wicket haul for just 89 runs, and Jofra Archer removed both openers in the second innings on his way to 3 for 50.

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Pakistan on the other hand, without the injured Babar Azam and led by stand-in captain Salman Ali Agha, went to lunch on the final day at 59 for 3 before Tongue's triple strike reduced them to 76 for 6. They lost four wickets for 25 runs in the closing stages, folding for 135 in 37.3 overs.

Hussain's point is not that one single cost Pakistan the Test, because England's 409, built around Harry Brook's 91, Jordan Cox's 73, Root's 66 and Dan Lawrence's 51, had already put the match beyond them. It is that a side collapsing this regularly can ill afford to shorten its own innings through avoidable decisions. With the second Test at Lord's beginning on Thursday, Pakistan have little time to find answers.

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