Pak vs Ban – First Test – Frustrated Naseem Shah feels flat pitches negate Pakistan’s home advantage

Naseem, playing his first Test in over a year following a long-term injury, bowled 27.3 overs, taking 3 for 93. “We have to tell the truth,” he said. “It’s been too many series where we get these types of pitches. The ground staff have tried their best to make this pitch good for bowling, but maybe because of the heat and the sun there’s not much help from the pitch. We need to think about it. How can you take home advantage, because you have to find a way to produce results in these games, otherwise you don’t use home advantage.”

Pakistan’s domestic results, too, have been mixed; they last won a Test at home during that 2020-21 series in South Africa, and have lost four and drawn four since.

All this has left Naseem wondering if Pakistan needs to rethink its approach to Test cricket at home. “The bowlers worked hard,” he said. “I’m playing a Test after more than a year and it took me a while to find my rhythm. The kind of weather we have now, it’s very hot, and we didn’t get the help from the top as bowling. The unit as we expected.

“If we can’t make the kind of pitches that help the fast bowlers, we have to see if we can produce spin wickets. Still, you need to use the good at home. People come to enjoy Test cricket in this heat. , so you need to entertain them. What shouldn’t happen is that you are on the pitch and you think that this hard work If you continue to enjoy cricket, it is something that we should consider.

That the series is played in August doesn’t help, with the heat and humidity combining to dry it out. The one in Rawalpindi was left in the sun before the match started, the morning rain forced it to start delaying. Pakistan’s packed winter schedule, along with Bangladesh’s planned tour of India in September, means that this small window is the only one left in which these two Test matches can fit.

Naseem, however, believes that there is not enough on the face of the spinners, or, giving, in his own way, questions about the selection of Pakistan. “We believe the fast bowlers will get a lot of help here. But what we expected didn’t happen. With four fast bowlers, your idea is to take wickets with fast balls. However, I don’t think it will happen. spin or, because there is grass on the pitch. But the pitch is very dry underneath, and the ball doesn’t get help from the grass because of that, even if it looks like it might come out on top.”

While there has been a lot of criticism of Pakistan’s pitches from outside, this is the first time that the call has come to the fore and it is apparently coming from inside the house. Whether Naseem, Pakistan’s leading Test bowler, has even questioned whether trying to produce pace-matched pitches in Pakistan is worth it after all, the rush to fix what seemed to be broken in 2022 has never been more pressing.