Thursday morning at Lord’s heralded a new era for English cricket, with Rob Key unveiled as the new managing director of England’s men’s cricket and Ben Stokes announced as the new Test captain.

But while Key fielded questions at HQ, there was something special happening on the field close by. Middlesex’s fixture with Leicestershire saw Pakistan quick Shaheen Afridi make his home debut for the Lord’s-based side, and he was quick to unleash his left-arm havoc.

The 22-year-old struck in just his third over, finding the outside edge of Hassan Azad to gift Peter Handscomb with a catch at first slip. From the very next delivery, Colin Ackermann dragged a ball onto his stumps to leave Shaheen on a hat-trick for the second match in a row.

While Louis Kimber survived the third delivery, Shaheen eventually had his man four overs later, bowling the right-hander for 15. Leicestershire were 63-6 at lunch, and Shaheen was responsible for much of the carnage.

But the fun didn’t stop there for Pakistan’s quicks in the County Championship. At Yorkshire, Haris Rauf – playing just his seventh first-class match – was all over Kent’s top order on his Headingley debut. He nabbed the major wicket of the in-form Ben Compton in the sixth over of the innings and England opener Zak Crawley was on his way two overs later, adjudged lbw. Rauf’s third was Jack Leaning for a second-ball duck to leave Kent 20-3 inside 10 overs.

At the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, James Anderson caught the eye for Lancashire with a miserly opening spell against Hampshire that featured the wickets of Ian Holland and Nick Gubbins. But Hasan Ali had his fun too, continuing his excellent form when he was brought on first change. After taking match figures of 9-96 last week in a win over Gloucestershire, Hasan collected the scalps of Liam Dawson and Ben Brown – both of whom made centuries last week – before lunch.

In Bristol, there was another notable name in action. Mohammad Amir – signed by Gloucestershire as an injury replacement for Naseem Shah for three County Championship matches – played his first red-ball match in three years. But the left-armer, who retired from international cricket in 2020, couldn’t land a breakthrough with the new ball; David Payne and Matthew Taylor were the men who took out Surrey’s top order.

Nonetheless, it was a morning to remember for the seamers, and there was something to shout about on the batting front too: Shan Masood batted though till lunch for Derbyshire against Glamorgan, going in at the break unbeaten on 33. Afterwards, he advanced to his fifth consecutive 50+ score for the club, but a fantastic return catch from Michael Hogan ended his innings on 60. Azhar Ali, on the other hand, continues to struggle for runs at Worcestershire. The Pakistan No.3 fell for 6, taking his season’s tally to 29 runs at an average of 7.25.

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Pakistan Series Editorial