Pakistan and England shared the honours on Day 1 of the deciding Test at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. England batted first and posted a decent score of 267 on a tough pitch before reducing Pakistan to 73-3 at stumps. It was a tremendous achievement from England to reach 267 after being rattled by spinners Sajid Khan and Noman Ali, who left England reeling at 118-6. It was all because of the efforts of young wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith, who played a gritty knock of 89 to take England to a fighting total.

Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan was mighty impressed with Smith's knock and labelled him as the 'new Adam Gilchrist'. Vaughan took to X and wrote, "Really good day in the end for England .. Can’t see how this pitch gets better so as with last week the toss crucial . Jamie Smith inside 8 Tests is being labelled the new Gilchrist .. no finer compliment."

Smith has had a decent start to his Test career. In the nine matches played so far, he has scored 634 runs, with a hundred and four fifties.

Meanwhile, England would want to knock out Pakistan early in the first innings. The pitch is not the easiest to bat and there is plenty happening for the spinners. With the ball keeping low and turning square, a lead of even fifty could be significant. On the other hand, Pakistan would also want to take a big lead as they will be batting fourth in the Test match, and given the conditions, chasing anything around 150-180 could be a monumental ask.

The winner of the third Test will also take the series which is currently tied at 1-1. England won the first Test by an innings and 47 runs before Pakistan bounced back to win the second Test by 152 runs.

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