England became the first team to score 500 runs on the first day of a Test in Rawalpindi on Thursday, putting Pakistan to the sword.
Four English batsmen scored centuries as the tourists reached 506-4 at the end of the game.
The previous record for first-day runs was 494 by Australia against South Africa in Sydney in 1910.
More than 500 runs have been achieved in a day on only four other occasions — three times by England and once by Sri Lanka — but never on the first day of a Test.
The record was 588 by England on the second day of the 1936 Test against India.
England’s strong batting had a perfect start to the Test – their first in Pakistan in 17 years – after hanging in the balance on Wednesday when several visiting players came down with a mystery virus.
The first test will start as per the schedule.
Earlier, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had announced that the match will be played as per the original schedule.
“The ECB (England Cricket Board) has informed the PCB that they are in a position to field an XI, and thus the first Pakistan Wing Test is scheduled for today (Thursday, December 1) at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. I will start,” PCB said in an early morning tweet.
The ECB has informed the PCB that they are in a position to field an XI, and, as such, the first #PAKvENG Test will commence as per schedule today (Thursday, 1 December) at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) December 1, 2022
The start of today’s match was doubtful after several players fell ill in the England camp on Wednesday.
For today’s match, the touring side have made one change to their original playing XI, replacing Ben Foakes with Will Jacks, who is making his Test debut alongside all-rounder Liam Livingstone.
“We had some sickness but we were excited to start,” Stokes said after winning the toss. “Obviously it wasn’t ideal to start our tour like this, but hopefully we’ll be fine.”
Pakistan have named four debutants Saud Shakeel, Haris Rauf, Muhammad Ali and Zahid Mehmood in their XI.
The first match of the three-Test series between England and Pakistan will begin today (December 1-5), the second match will be played in Multan from December 9-13 and the third in Karachi from December 17-21.
England team is facing illness.
JEE News reported on Wednesday that almost half of England’s 16-man squad were suffering from an illness, with only five taking part in an optional training session involving 14 members of the traveling party, including coaches and back-up staff. were advised to stay at the team hotel. .
Joe Root, Zac Crowley, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope and Keaton Jennings were among the players in training on Wednesday, with head coach Brendan McCullum also present. All the squad trained on Tuesday.
After reports of England players falling ill, the PCB and the England Cricket Board had announced that a final decision on whether to go ahead with the first Test as scheduled would be taken on Thursday morning.
In a joint statement, the PCB and ECB said they had discussed the “outbreak of viral infection” among the England team and “agreed to take a decision on the start of the first Test tomorrow Pakistan time”. Accordingly agreed to adjourn till 07:30. Thursday)”.
The statement said the two boards made the decision based on “medical advice from doctors in England”.
England are on their first Test tour of Pakistan in 17 years, two months ago their T20 team won the series 4-3 in the country after playing seven matches.
Due to the food and players getting sick during the T20 series, it was decided to bring in a chef, Omar Meezan, who also worked with the England men’s football team at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and Euro 2020.
However, former England Test captain Joe Root on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of his teammates falling ill due to food poisoning during the ongoing tour, saying: “It’s just one of those things that we’ve unfortunately had to deal with. Raised as a group from”. .
“I don’t think it’s food poisoning or Covid or anything like that,” Root said while answering a question during a press talk in Rawalpindi.
Teams
Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Azhar Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Ali, Haris Rauf, Saud Shakeel, Zahid Mahmood, Naseem Shah
England: Ben Stokes (captain), James Anderson, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Jack Leach, Liam Livingstone, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson
Umpires: Joel Wilson (WIS) and Ahsan Raza (PAK)
TV umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA)
Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)
