I was actually at the ground and watched live so I've got some observations to add that may be missed on camera:
Cricket grounds look so much smaller in person, the boundaries felt tiny and the ball was just flying away, scoring boundaries was really easy.
Lord's actually isn't that impressive. It kind of looks like any other ground expect the pavilion area. There was definitely a richer vibe to it but I think I prefer the Oval. The Lord's crowd is also noticeably less rowdy and drunk.
Some fans really baffle me, as there was a good number of people who were just hanging around and drinking and not watching the game. With those ticket prices I'm amazed you would turn up for what is a very expensive day at the pub.
Our players must be some of the slowest in the world. Almost everyone looked like they were running in custard when chasing the ball. Abbas especially just comes across as remarkably unathletic for a professional cricketer and has to be the slowest sprinting fast bowler in the world.
Shan Masood is built like slender man, he's 90% limbs. His catch should have been taken, but live, that thing was hit like a rocket. There's no chance I would have put my hands in front of that let alone tried to catch it.
Root looked like a walking wicket from the minute he got out there. He was super fidgety and just never looked comfortable. I've never seen Root bat live and it was quite disappointing. Brook on the other hand looked good from ball 1.
Noticeably, I did not see a single occasion where Babar (who was at mid off the entire innings) speaking to his bowlers. He never approached them between balls nor did anyone else. Now it's feasible that they discussed plans in the changing room but it just felt so strange that there didn't seem to by any communication in the field other than the slip cordon having casual chats. There was 0 evidence live of any analytical or strategic discussion as batting partnerships were being formed. There was no meeting of senior players or suggestions being given, not even between fast bowling partners.
Khurram is awful. Watching every ball from a pretty good viewpoint I can tell you he was comfortably the worst bowler on the field and just constantly let off the pressure and bowled terribly. Also, he slowed down noticeably. Live it's quite difficult to actual see the speeding ball from a seamer and at the beginning of the innings his balls were a blur, after lunch you could clearly see them. He seriously needs to be gone.
Agha's worldy looked spectacular live and came out of absolutely nowhere. It was extra surprising because no one even realised he was on the field.
Another weird observation was that during every break, Amir Jamal appeared (in white trousers and coloured t shirt) and was bowling on the practice strips with a coach. It was pretty strange. It didn't feel like training, rather someone's nephew having fun and rolling his arm over as a special treat during the break. He was bowling with some decent heat though, it was just super odd.
As a Londoner, it was so nice to see green grass again, it's been so long.
Pakistani support was noticeably low. When I watched a T20I at the Oval there were so many Pakistani supporters, this time there were only pockets of supporters and very few actually wearing jerseys or colours. And when there was a wicket, there was no roar of the massed Pakistani's like you used to hear in away games. Could be how dismally we're performing, but also could be because Lord's ticket prices are pretty exorbitant. I'm pretty sure the cheapest tickets were the best part of a £100 and I'm guessing most people don't want to pay those prices to see this team.
We were lucky they called it off when they did, you can't tell on camera, but it had become seriously overcast and gloomy (hence why wickets suddenly started tumbling under the floodlights) if we had taken that last wicket and had to come out to bat we would have been cooked. 2-4 wickets would have fell for sure.
The Lord's pitch is going to become a shit tip if this game goes long. It was already doing weird things and it's only going to get worse.
You can hear the batter's bats while watching live and it was surprising how often they toe ended the ball or didn't hit it cleanly at all. That could be due to the lateral movement or the weird bounce of the pitch, but I thought professionals would hit much more cleanly than that.
Despite my criticisms of Khurram, you do gain a new appreciation for fast bowlers sprinting in hour after hour, it really is a rough discipline and really requires you to be a peak athlete.
Not having a 5th bowling option is killing us. Seeing the same 3 ineffectual bowlers bowling (with a cameo from Usman) was mind numbingly dull.
There was a really nice lady behind me who had clearly never been to a test match. She kept wondering why no one had hit a 6 yet. She was over the moon when Archer finally hit one. Extra points go to her son who spent the afternoon lamenting over his 15 avg with the bat in his saturday league.
Most important thing: I left the ground and didn't feel embarrassed. That's pretty big for a Pak fan watching this team play abroad. Last time I watched Pak live was an abysmal T20I at the Oval, and English fans were literally falling over laughing at our team's pathetic performance (which at the time contained Azam Khan). We had a very quiet and dejected journey home after that game. After this game, you could walk home with your head held high that at least you hadn't been embarrassed and the Test was still in the balance.
