ENG vs PAK: As a result of several players in the visitors’ camp contracting a virus and becoming ill, the start of the Pakistan-England Test in Rawalpindi appeared to be in jeopardy, and the scheduled start of play was also in doubt. However, the game began as scheduled on Thursday morning, and the Rawalpindi stadium crowd witnessed Pakistani history being written. 

Four batters scored centuries on the opening day for the first time in Test cricket history. 

England became the first team to score 500 runs on the first day of a Test match, scoring 506/4 at stumps, thanks to the efforts of Zak Crawley (122), Ben Duckett (107), Ollie Pope (108), and Harry Brook (101*). Since it had been 17 years since England had played in a Test series, it was already a historic occasion. 

On the first day, the visitors doubled the party and scored more than 500 runs. Cricketers from the past began making fun of the game. Shoaib Akhtar, a former Pakistani pacer, praised England’s Test coach Brendon McCullum and referred to the “Bazzball” theory. Akhtar said in a video that she shared on social media that if England players had set a world record despite being sick, what would they have been able to do if they were healthy?

“Thankfully, the England players are unwell, as the news reports said. Yeh tabyat theek nahi hai to 500 maar diye, tabyat theek hoti to bohot bura haal karte (They scored 500 when they are sick. They would have thrashed us if they were fit and fine). Their [England’s] coach Brendon McCullum doesn’t believe in batting slowly in Test cricket. He asks his players to score run-a-ball. England have playing aggressive cricket since he came to the helm. They don’t stop. Debutant Liam Livingstone will bat at No. 7, so they have depth in their batting line-up. So, I think, Pakistan also needs to change the mindset,”

said Shoaib in the video.

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“It’s a young team, full of innocent people. But Test cricket is actually very bruising. Pakistan need to assess where they are standing because it’s not easy. It wasn’t pleasing to see our kids getting hammered,”

Shoaib concluded.

The previous first-day run total set by Australia against South Africa in 1910 in Sydney was 494. Only four other times have teams scored more than 500 runs in a single day—three times by England and once by Sri Lanka—but never on the first day of a Test.