Day-night Tests, World Test championship, and fast surfaces are among the steps to save Test cricket due to a rapid rise in popularity in formats like T10 and the Hundred. But Test pitches in Pakistan have become depressingly similar as they were decades ago.
During the last seven decades, a total of 157 Test matches have been played in Pakistan on different venues in which 80 matches were decided while 75 matches ended in a draw.
| Span | Matches | Result | Draw | Tied |
| 1955-2022 | 157 | 80 | 75 | 0 |
Last year, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman, Ramiz Raja had said that the cricket board had planned to install drop-in pitches that would benefit the national players. Days later, PCB signed an agreement with Arif Habib Group for creating and installing two drop-in pitches in the country.
Ramiz Raja had also said that they had been struggling to cope with the extra bounce and pace that some of the pitches in the SENA countries offer. But the first Test match between Australia and Pakistan witnessed another slow surface at Rawalpindi despite a plethora of in-form batters and world-class bowlers in the team.
Before the start of the historic Test match, it was expected that Rawalpindi would be providing a pacer-friendly surface but the Test match neither saw bounce nor swing on any day of the match. Some of the cricket experts and former cricketers have raised questions on the flat surface, especially in this historic series.
Here are some tweets from former cricketers and cricket fans:
Slow & dead pitch.. above all low intent so far fading out chances of result in this historic test match. One team have to play very poorly to give a result in this test match. Result oriented cricket is the future of Test cricket not dead drawn games please 🙏
— Mohammad Hafeez (@MHafeez22) March 5, 2022
Wickets falling. It's like greeting a long lost friend. #PAKvAUS
— Melinda Farrell (@melindafarrell) March 8, 2022
I find it amusing when Test matches get over inside 4 days yet teams lose WTC points for overrate. The biggest threat to test cricket is not overrate. Tests rarely go to day 5 anyway nowadays. The biggest threat to test cricket are dead pitches. Dead pitch = Dead game. #PAKvAUS
— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) March 7, 2022
Five wickets for Nauman Ali!
That's a great effort on this pitch #PAKvAUS pic.twitter.com/1REBJgWPrS
— England parody (@TheAussiesArmy) March 8, 2022
The first Test witnessed a number of batting records as batters dominated the match from start til the end. Australia could only manage to get 4 wickets as Pakistani batters piled on the runs. Pakistani openers equaled a 51-year-old record against Australia as they became only the second pair in history to score two century partnerships in two innings.
Pakistan and Australia have to play two more Test matches in the series, one in Karachi scheduled on March 21-25 while the last Test match is scheduled to start on March 29 at Lahore. The cricket fans will love to see fast surfaces in the upcoming Tests and it will also be better for both the bowling and batting departments to come out of their comfort zones.
