Former Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ramiz Raja has dropped another bombshell regarding Babar Azam and his role in preparing the playing surfaces under his captaincy.
Under Babar’s leadership, Pakistan veered away from using spinning wickets at home to trouble the opposing batters, instead opting to prepare flat surfaces that suited the opposition. The same story followed in the home Test series against Australia and England back in 2022, when the visitors hammered Pakistan on wickets that offered nothing to the bowlers, with Pakistan eventually going down in both instances.
The pattern was finally broken this year under guidance from the revamped selection committee in Multan and Rawalpindi tests with Pakistan easily wrapping up the wins.
Ramiz Raja has now shockingly revealed that it was their plan all along but they had to back out fearing sanctions from the ICC. The cricketer-turned-commentator revealed the insights during an online discussion. He said,
Babar Azam tried against Australia and England to have slow and spinning tracks but the curator told us that we may get fined for preparing a pitch like that because ICC keeps an eye out for this.
Babar and Ramiz were rightfully criticized for playing against Pakistan’s strengths at home and the two paid the price for it. Rawalpindi ended up receiving a demerit point anyway for a poor playing surface and Pakistan lost any chance of fighting for the WTC trophy. With new management at the helm Pakistan looks to be finally on the right track once again.
Ramiz, meanwhile, has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons recently including flip-flopping about his support for Babar. But with a winning culture returning to the team, everyone’s shortcomings may be getting papered over once again.
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