Pakistan’s beleaguered batting line up needs immediately to push it up as another failure will simply lead them to suffer the fifth bilateral Test series defeat in South Africa.
Since 1994/95, Pakistan had toured South Africa five times before the ongoing campaign and except 1997-98 drawn Test Series, it lost all of them.
So since Pakistan has already lost the first Test match of current series at Centurion by six wickets, another defeat will result in nothing but further addition to Pakistan’s woes in South Africa.
The further worrisome fact is that Pakistan has never won or even drawn a Test match at Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town, the venue wherein the two teams will play the second Test from Thursday.
In the past, Pakistan played at Cape Town thrice in January 2003, January 2007 and February 2013 but the winner was always South Africa.
Mohammad Abbas looked alright during in a training session in Cape Town ahead of the 2nd #SAvPAK Test 🏏 pic.twitter.com/203aCKuVHr
— Cricingif (@_cricingif) January 1, 2019
Earlier in a Press Conference in Cape Town on Wednesday, Pakistan Captain Sarfraz Ahmed ruled out any change in the batting lineup, and said that they would go with six proper batsmen.
Sarfraz Ahmed said that Mohammad Abbas has recovered from his injury and will play the second Test. Though he didn’t mention, whom Abbas will replace.
Meanwhile, Sarfraz also confirmed that the middle-order batsman Haris Sohail has been ruled out of the rest of the series due to a knee injury.
BREAKING: Haris Sohail has been ruled out of the Test series against South Africa after failing to recover from a knee injury 🤕#SAvPAK pic.twitter.com/RxLTOcasmr
— Cricingif (@_cricingif) January 2, 2019
On the other hand, in the second Test, South Africa will have the services of Vernon Philander, who has taken 49 wickets in nine Test matches at Newlands with an average of 16.55.
Last time when Pakistan and South Africa played the Test match at Newlands, Vernon Philander picked up nine wickets while Asad Shafiq along with Younis Khan struck centuries.
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