Pakistan vs Sri Lanka 2017: 5 reasons why Pakistan lost the Test series

#2 Collapses

Pakistan's collapses have been quite frequent of late.

Pakistan have a history of collapsing at crucial moments. The tag they have attained of being ‘consistently inconsistent’ is solely due to the frequent collapses they have had in the past few years.

The meltdown in the second innings of the first Test was their 8th collapse on the fifth day of a Test since 2014, and 6th since 2016. These collapses are occurring far too often and they need to address this problem soon.

Chasing 135 in the first Test, they were reduced to 36/5 at one point, eventually being bowled out for 114. Even in the second Test, they lost wickets in clusters and at key stages. From 61/0 they went to 109/4 and then 180/4 to 220/8 and 262 all out in the first innings of the 2nd Test.

And then again, in the second innings, chasing a tricky 316, Pakistan were reduced to 52/5 before a brilliant 173-run stand between Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed raised hopes of an unlikely win. But once Sarfraz departed, they lost the plot completely, losing their last 5 wickets for 23 runs.