PAK vs ENG: Atherton says four-day Test likely in Multan

Former captain and renowned commentator Michael Atherton believes that the second Test between Pakistan and England in Multan could be a four-day affair due to bad light and fog.

It must be noted that provincial authorities have issued a fog alert for the next few days, which could eat into playing time.

“The great difficulty here in Multan are going to be the short days. It goes dark as it did in Pindi in the evenings and we are getting fog here in the morning so we can expect a delayed start,” Atherton told Sky Sports.

“So, if you know off a bit at the start and knock off a bit at the end, you are probably going to lose a day. So, it is essentially going to be a four-day Test match. Will that be enough time to force a result? We shall see,” he added.

Atherton also shed light on England’s strategy for the second Test against Pakistan, which starts on Friday, December 9.

“I think England will try and go hard again and they probably have to if we are losing a day. Will they think about batting just once in the Test match? Will they think about bowling first? We can’t discount anything with Ben Stokes in charge,” he said.

“He [Stokes] really wants to forget about convention and tradition and tear up the rule book and do it his way. Whatever he thinks is England’s best route to victory, he will go down that route even if it means using fairly unorthodox and non-traditional methods,” he added.

England took full advantage of winning the toss — and their batting depth — to win the first Test by 74 runs Monday on a dead Rawalpindi wicket that offered nothing to the bowlers.

Multan, however, despite not hosting a Test match for 16 years, could provide more spin if recent domestic matches are anything to go by.

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, who scored a century in Pakistan´s first innings in Rawalpindi, said he wanted something more lively.

"We wanted a spin pitch (in Rawalpindi)," he told reporters.

"I gave my input ... but unfortunately it was not what we planned."

Rawalpindi yielded 1,768 runs in four innings — the third most in Test history — with seven individual centuries and five 50s.

But Multan helped spinners in the last first-class match played there, with former Test spinner Yasir Shah taking five wickets in each innings.

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