Pakistan's Batting Collapse and Imam-ul-Haq's Injury Controversy
At Lord’s, Pakistan’s batting fell apart. Off the field, the noise around them somehow grew louder.
A calf strain, a collapse, and a bombshell
Imam-ul-Haq walked off on the opening day at Lord’s clutching his left calf, a routine fielding stint suddenly cut short in the evening session. The Pakistan Cricket Board moved quickly to clarify the situation: scans, they said, had revealed a low-grade calf strain, and the opener was under the supervision of the team’s medical staff. His availability for the rest of the Test would depend on how quickly he responded to treatment.
On its own, it was a straightforward injury bulletin. A senior opener, already under pressure after a heavy defeat in Leeds, now in doubt for the rest of a crucial Test.
Then Mohammad Wasim spoke.
The former chief selector accused Imam of having a history of “faking” injuries, dragging a private warning from a team physio in 2022 into the public domain.
“In 2022 Multan test, the physio warned me in advance that he is going to fake an injury soon. And he did that,” Wasim said, turning a routine medical update into a flashpoint.
No documents. No corroboration. Just his recollection, aired in the middle of a live series, while the player in question is officially sidelined with a scan-confirmed strain.
Pakistan exposed with bat and with words
Imam’s absence at Lord’s left Pakistan without one of their most seasoned top-order batters, at a time when they could least afford it. He had opened in the series opener at Headingley alongside the young Azan Awais, a match Pakistan lost inside three days by an innings. The tourists arrived in London already wounded.
England then ripped through them.
Bowled out for just 110, Pakistan surrendered a 180-run first-innings deficit that felt even larger than the numbers on the scoreboard. Their innings lasted only 37.2 overs. The response to England’s 290 never really began.
Ollie Robinson was relentless: 13 overs, six maidens, 4 for 11. Jofra Archer thundered in from the other end, taking 3 for 26 from 11.2 overs. Josh Tongue added two wickets. Gus Atkinson, the only seamer to finish without a scalp, hardly mattered in the carnage.
By stumps on day two, England had moved to 81 for 3 in their second innings, stretching the overall lead to 261 before bad light brought an early close. The match situation was brutal. The narrative around Pakistan, even worse.
This is the backdrop against which Wasim chose to question Imam’s integrity.
Serious claim, flimsy stage
Accusing a current international of faking injuries is no minor jab. It strikes at a player’s professionalism, his commitment, his standing in the dressing room. When that accusation rests solely on one man’s memory of a private exchange from two years ago, it demands scrutiny.
The timing is impossible to ignore. Pakistan’s batting has disintegrated in back-to-back Tests. Their techniques look fragile in English conditions, their decision-making muddled, their confidence brittle. Team management faces questions over selections, preparation, and the mental resilience of a side that keeps folding under pressure.
In that context, Wasim’s comments feel less like a considered intervention and more like a grenade lobbed from the sidelines.
There is a legitimate conversation to be had about fitness, conditioning, and how players manage niggles and injuries. Former selectors are well within their rights to point out patterns they believe hurt the team. But doing it in a media interview, mid-series, about a player whose current injury has been confirmed by scans and publicly documented by the PCB, blurs the line between accountability and character assassination.
It undermines the claim and the player in one go.
Distraction from deeper problems
Pakistan cricket does not lack real, structural issues. Technical flaws against the moving ball. A batting order that caves in clusters. Inconsistent selection calls. A revolving door of plans and philosophies that never seem to settle.
Those are the problems demanding attention after being skittled for 110 in the shadow of the Lord’s pavilion.
Instead, the conversation veers toward whether one of their senior openers is trustworthy when he limps off a field.
If Wasim holds evidence beyond a remembered warning and a belief that a pattern exists, it belongs in a formal review, not as a passing soundbite. If he does not, the damage is already done: a player’s reputation questioned, a dressing room placed under further strain, and a fragile touring side dragged into another off-field storm.
Pakistan came to Lord’s needing runs, resilience, and clarity. They leave, at least for now, with a scoreboard that exposes their cricket and a controversy that exposes their fault lines.
