PAK vs ENG: Debutant Kamran's century powers Pakistan to 259/5 on day 1

MULTAN: Debutant Kamran Ghulam, the replacement of star batter Babar Azam, smashed a ton to help Pakistan conclude their day 1 of the 2nd Test against England at 259/5 after the hosts lost early wickets of Abdullah Shafique and skipper Shan Masood.

Pakistan scored 259/5 at the conclusion of Day 1 play with Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha on the crease to drive the team's innings after they opted to bat first after winning the toss.

Kamran completed his century off 192 balls containing nine fours and one six.

He became the 13th Pakistani batter who smashed a ton on his debut followed by Javed Miandad, Saleem Malik, Muhammad Waseem, Ali Naqvi, Azhar Mahmood, Younis Khan, Taufeeq Umar, whereas, Yasir Hameed was the only batter who scored a ton in both innings.

Additionally, Fawad Alam, Umar Akmal, and Abid Ali were among the batters who slammed a ton during their debut test matches.

Subsequently, he also became the 2nd Pakistani to score a century debut while batting at number 4. The only other Pakistani to score a debut century at 4 was Malik in 1982.

There are only 5 batsmen in Test history who made their debut at 4 and scored centuries. The last one to reach three figures on such an occasion was Aminul Islam of Bangladesh in 2000.

Nawab Pataudi senior 1932, Gundappa Viswanath 1969, Frank Hayes 1973 and Malik in 1982 are others in history to do so.

Kamran's top innings was concluded at 118 after he was bowled out by Shoaib Bashir.

Salman came in after Kamran's departure and continued the innings with Mohammad Rizwan (37*) besides scoring 5 runs till the conclusion of today's play.

Earlier, Pakistan captain Masood won the toss but was soon ruing his decision to bat first as the hosts slumped to 19-2 inside 40 minutes.

After five overs of seam bowling, England captain Ben Stokes opted for spin from both ends and the decision paid off immediately.

Jack Leach beat Abdullah Shafique's tentative prod and uprooted the off-stump to dismiss the opener for seven.

In his next over the left-arm spinner dismissed Shan for three, getting the Pakistan skipper to flick a delivery from outside the off-stump into the hand of Zak Crawley at short mid-wicket.

With Pakistan in trouble, Kamran walked in for his first test but the right-hander showed no nerves as he stepped out against Leach hitting the spinner over his head for a big six.

The duo returned after the lunch break to consolidate Pakistan's position and Kamran took a single off Shoaib Bashir to bring up his maiden test fifty.

Keen to break the stand, Stokes brought himself on and proved quite a handful with his swing and awkward bounce though a wicket eluded the seamer.

Stokes maintained an attacking field, however, and Saim eventually fell into the trap, pushing a ball from Matthew Potts straight into the hand of the England captain at short mid-off.

Saim's 77 contained seven fours.

England were bolstered by the return of Stokes, who missed their comprehensive victory in the opening test at the same venue to complete his recovery from a hamstring injury.

Stung by the innings defeat, Pakistan have dropped out-of-form batter Azam and frontline pacers Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah.

Playing XIs

Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (captain), Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan and Zahid Mehmood

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith (wk), Brydon Carse, Matt Potts, Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir