England’s Joe Root uses Jack Leach’s head to shine ball in test match against Pakistan
Usually cricketers shine the ball with saliva or sweat on the forehead, but after the ban on using saliva to shine ball, England’s player Joe Root found out the new and unique way.
During the third day of the Test match against Pakistan, England’s Joe Root took the ball and polished it on spinner Jack Leach’s head and the video of that moment went viral on social media.
Following the Joe Root’s interesting move, commentators burst into laughter while Nasir Hussain jokingly told fellow commentators not to ‘look at him’ as he is also bald.
Earlier, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam joined teammates Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq in scoring a century – the seventh of the match following England’s earlier four — as the first Test looked headed for a draw in Rawalpindi.
Azam cracked a boundary towards cover off opposition skipper Ben Stokes to reach his eighth century off 126 balls, studded with 13 boundaries.
Pakistan, at 411-3, are in a strong position to reach 458 and avoid the follow-on in reply to England’s mammoth first innings total of 657.
Shafique, 89 overnight, was the first to three figures earlier with a sharp single off Joe Root, while Haq — who started the session on 90 — followed with a boundary off the same bowler.
They both now have three Test centuries and successive hundreds at the venue, having also reached three figures against Australia in March this year.
Haq scored a ton in both innings against Australia, while Shafique scored a century in the second.
Haq was eventually out for 121, and Shafique 114.
Zak Crawley (122), Ben Duckett (107), Ollie Pope (108) and Harry Brook (153) scored centuries for England in their first innings.
The Rawalpindi pitch has been heavily criticised, with Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja calling it a relic of “the dark ages”.
