The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been at the receiving end for preparing a dead pitch at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium for the first Test match of the Benaud-Qadir Trophy but reports have revealed that it was the team management who had asked the board to prepare a sedate surface.
According to sources, due to a number of inexperienced players in the Test setup, the team management including the skipper Babar Azam and the head coach Saqlain Mushtaq had requested the PCB management to prepare a slow pitch for the opening match of the Test series.
Babar Azam-led Pakistan had included young openers and inexperienced pacers in the playing XI, and the fear of loss against a strong Australian side had compelled the team to play on a slow pitch.
Last year, Pakistan had defeated South Africa by 95 runs at the same venue where Hasan Ali bagged 10 wickets, while Anrich Nortje and George Linde took five-wicket hauls. In the same match, Aiden Markram and Mohammad Rizwan had scored centuries.
Meanwhile, team management has suggested a spinning track at National Stadium Karachi after left-arm spinner, Nauman Ali, bagged six wickets in the first innings of the Rawalpindi Test. It is expected that a slow track will be prepared for the second Test in Karachi which has traditionally supported spinners.
Earlier, Pat Cummins said that the best strategy ahead would be to include two spinners in playing XI and it is expected that the leg-spin bowler, Mitchell Swepson, might make his debut for the national team.
It is pertinent to mention that both teams will start training from today while the second Test will start on March 12.
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I had the impression that Rameez Raja would be different from other PCB Chairmen but I was wrong. They are all after saving their chairs and we as a nation are eternally afraid of a defeat, be it the sports or something else. We literally beg other teams to come to Pakistan and play here and then do such things. The pitch should have been playable, not a high school ground’s pitch. On top of all that we continued with the batting of our team all day long just to create ‘records’. When the score was within a safe range, we should have given Australia the opportunity to bat. But who cares? We shall never learn.