Rizwan, Shakeel hit back after West Indies' early strikes

Rizwan and Shakeel delivered a strong response after the West Indies' early strikes in their latest match, showcasing resilience and determination. Despite the early setbacks, both players played crucial innings, stabilizing the situation and rebuilding the innings with solid partnerships. Their performance under pressure highlighted their skill and composure, turning the tide in favor of their team. Rizwan's consistency and Shakeel's stylish play were key in weathering the West Indies' attack, as they worked to put their side back on track in what was shaping up to be a challenging encounter.

The opening Test at Multan got off to a delayed start due to thick fog cover but once the game kickstarted in the afternoon, it came packed with plenty of action. In the first West Indies struck hard through Jayden Seales before Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel led a fightback.

Rizwan's counter-attack came in a thrilling fashion with the spinners being put under the pump. Rizwan swept and used to his feet to good effect which gave Pakistan a much-needed boost after a torrid first session. In his eccentric company, Shakeel was able to play the sheet-anchor role to good effect which ended up in an unbeaten 97-run stand at the end of the day. The two half-centuries turned the tables on what was otherwise a good start for the tourists.

Pakistan had chosen to bat on a pitch that was spicy straightaway. With puffs of dust kicking up, there was purchase for spin from the get-go and West Indies opened the bowling with Gudakesh Motie's left-arm spin at one end. But there was also significant movement off the deck for the pacers which Jayden Seales made perfect use of. While Pakistan's openers got off to a watchful start, it came to an end when debutant Muhammad Hurraira nicked behind off Seales. It gave West Indies' debutant wicket-keeper Tevin Imlach his first dismissal in Test cricket.

Hurraira's partner Shan Masood followed soon after edging a big turning ball from Motie down the legside with Imlach moving to his left to take a sharp chance. Kamran Ghulam started with a delectable cover-drive off Seales but the bowler had the last laugh, pinging him on the back pad with a nipbacker. Ghulam, who had left the ball, reviewed in optimism but the umpire's call stayed in Seales' favour. At 31/3, Pakistan's first session had not gone according to plan. Saud Shakeel and Babar Azam saw through some nervous moments for a couple of overs before the latter got a crackerjack from Seales.

Azam edged the away-seaming delivery to give Seales his third wicket of the morning and left Pakistan in dire straits. But thereafter Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan saw through the day which was further cut short at the end of the day by bad light forcing an early end.

Unfazed Seales over-delivers in spin-friendly Multan

Pakistan had gone to great lengths to take pace and seam movement out of the picture but Seales still found a way

Jayden seals knew the deck, quite literally, was stacked against him. Pakistan had spent the last few days working on that deck to make it so, erecting a protective greenhouse and attempting to warm up the Multan surface in frigid conditions using wedding-style heaters. The idea was to dry the pitch out and help the spinners get turn early on. With the 23-year-old the only opposition fast bowler, it would have felt, to him, as if the whole move was simply Operation Stop jayden seals

Well, it failed. There's only so much that can be done when the temperature drops into single digits, and fog encircled the stadium, forcing the game to start four hours late. Seales knew his window to strike was narrow, and he had little time to waste.

"We saw from the training sessions that the ball did a little bit when it was new," he told a press conference after the end of day's play. "For me, I needed to try and get the best out of the new ball and put the ball in the right areas. And with the cooler conditions this afternoon, it did a bit and it worked out for us."

Seales had more of an active role in making sure it worked out than he takes credit for. With spin operating right from the outset at the other end, he landed the ball on hard lengths, his height and pace making sure to extract enough bounce. But it was also his guile with the wrists that guaranteed seam movement, particularly in the dismissals of Kamran Ghulam and Babar Azam.

Having already dispatched the debutant Mohammad Hurraira, he was shaping it away from Ghulam when he was driven through the off side for four, and when the next one landed around a similar line, Ghulam felt secure enough to shoulder arms. But this one seamed back in and smashed into Ghulam's thigh, with HawkEye confirming it would have clipped the bails.

"I just wanted to build pressure," he said. "As a fast bowler in Asian countries, you tend to want to make a big impact and you want to do well for the team. Spin obviously dominates in these conditions. So as a fast bowler, I always wanted to get a wicket or be in the game and it so happened that I got the wickets for the team today."

But the dismissal to remove Babar required a delivery to match the quality of the batter, and Seales rose to the challenge. Babar came into this innings, with three successive Test half-centuries amid murmurs he may be returning to form. But before his spell ended, Seales ensured he bowled the delivery to give Pakistan one more bloody punch and leave them staggering.

"As a fast bowler, I always wanted to get a wicket or be in the game and it so happened that I got the wickets for the team today."

He landed it on a length as Babar prepared to get in line and defend. Ball-tracking showed the trajectory was sending it right to the middle of his bat, but he got it to land perfectly on the seam to nip away ever so slightly, and take the outside edge.

"I figured that he was watching my hand a bit, so I just tried to deceive him and it so happened that paid off. I think as a bowling unit, we did really well and we've just got to back it up again tomorrow. I think going forward in the game the spinners will come into the game a lot more. It may reverse-swing at some point, but I still think that the spinners may dominate in this game moving forward."

But Seales has happy memories against Pakistan, and having long odds against him doesn't faze him much. It was against this opposition four years ago as a teenager playing his third Test that he secured his breakout performance in Jamaica, taking eight wickets before holding his nerve in a thrilling tenth-wicket stand to secure his side a one-wicket win. He was named the Player of the Match.

While he knows his tactics may need to change here, his mentality evidently has not. "I don't really think of it as pressure or anything like that [being the sole seamer]. For me as a player, [it's] coming into the game a lot more and lifting my hand up for the team and just trying to do our job every time I'm called upon.

"In international cricket, you expect the players to be good and you have to back yourself and match up with players skill for skill and who is the better man on the day will win. And it so happened that today I was the man for the team."

Seales may undersell himself, but, more importantly for West Indies, he finds a way to over-deliver. And in conditions tailor-made to shut him out, few could argue he has not done exactly that.