Monitoring Report
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, opening batter Shan Masood and all-rounder Salman Ali Agha are down with “a viral flu” and off the field for the third day of the first Test match against New Zealand.
Pakistan’s wicket-keeper batter and vice-captain of Test team Mohammad Rizwan, who is not in the playing eleven, is on the filed as a substitute fielder and Sarfaraz Ahmed is reportedly captaining the side, while Kamran Ghulam and Sajid Khan are also on the field.
It was reported later that they would come out later in the day. Masood did, in fact, come out to field a short while after play started.
Earlier on second day, Salman’s maiden Test ton led Pakistan to 438 after skipper Azam and wicket-keeper Sarfaraz Ahmed’s major contributions. Babar and Salman scored prolific Test centuries and it was his (Salman’s) first ton. Sarfaraz also contributed 86 runs in the total. Pakistan lost four wickets on the first day of the first Test against New Zealand. Pakistan lost skipper Babar on 161 in the first over of the second day. While Nauman Ali scored 7, Mohammad Wasim, 2, and Mir Hamza scored only 1.
New Zealand scored 165 for no loss on the end of the second day and lost their first wicket of Devon Conway (92) on Nauman Ali’s delivery.
