Pakistan skipper Babar Azam revealed his inputs were sought by the curator before preparing the surface in Rawalpindi but they weren’t eventually adhered to as the track his side eventually got to take on England was not what they had hoped for.
Babar’s revelation came in the aftermath of Pakistan’s 64-run loss in the Test series opener in Pindi, with England completely outperforming the hosts with bat and the ball despite a viral spread into their camp before entering the field.
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Pakistan missed their injured lead quick Shaheen Afridi and wristspinner Yasir Shah badly and had to field three debutants on the bowling front in a scenario that hurt them badly. They conceded scores of 657 and 264/7 declared and made 579 and 268 all out either side of those.
The track in Rawalpindi neither offered the bowlers seam movement off the deck nor the sharp turn expected in the subcontinent at any stage over five days. If anything, it stayed low in the back half of the fixture, which allowed England quicks Ollie Robinson and James Anderson to use their tall release to good effect and share eight wickets between them in the final innings.
“Yes my input was there in the preparation of the pitch and we made it clear what we wanted but we didn’t get that because of the weather or whatever reason. But we wanted a track with some turn for the spinners,”
Babar said at the post-match press conference.
The Pakistan captain, who made a century in the first-innings of the Test, didn’t specify what kind of surface he wanted for his inexperienced attack but said it was certainly not how they had hoped for it to behave.
Playing lifeless and unresponsive to the bowlers for most part, the track in Rawalpindi also brought PCB chairman Ramiz Raja and his regime under scrutiny after repeated failings to produce a balanced Test surface in home conditions despite the same pitches offering bowlers enough help in domestic first-class cricket.
The pitch in Pindi was seen moving alarmingly for the seamers in a recent first-class game but went docile for the Test against England, as it did earlier in the year, too, when Australia came visiting the Pakistani shores.
