21 years old Pakistan National Cricket Team right-arm quick Naseem Shah has expressed disappointment with the pitches on offer in home Test matches.
The Pakistan Cricket Board has come under scrutiny for developing poor tracks for home Tests, which help the batsmen a little too much. The board promised to change things in the new home season with the appointment of Tony Hemming as the new head curator.
Ahead of the first Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, a green top pitch that will offer plenty of pace and bounce throughout has been reported.
Seeing this, the Pakistan team management decided to leave Abrar Ahmed out of the squad and started a 4-man pace attack. This move by the team management backfired hugely as the pitch gave no support to the pacers and the batsmen scored very easy runs.
Naseem Shah, one of the fast bowlers who gave his all in the match, spoke to the media after the fourth day’s play. Talking about the pitch, he expressed disappointment with the batting-friendly tracks produced in Pakistan and hit out at the PCB. Nasim Shah said:
“I think now we have a lot of series with (home) pitches like that. I think they tried their best to make the pitch good for the bowlers, but maybe it was only because of the heat with the new ball. And then the conditions improved.”
We have to use our home advantage by building pitches that suit us – Naseem Shah
The young pacer gave some important advice to the Pakistan Cricket Board and said that they should use their home advantage by making pitches that suit them. Naseem Shah pointed out that if green-topped tracks cannot be developed in Pakistan, they should choose suitable pitches for spin. He said:
“We have to use our home advantage by making pitches that suit us. If we can’t make a green, we can try on a spin-friendly track, but we always have to entertain the fans.”
Naseem Shah further revealed that they expected the pitch to help the fast bowlers but things didn’t turn out the way they expected. He said:
“Our mindset was that the pitch here would help the fast bowlers. But the conditions were not what I expected. Obviously, when you go with four fast bowlers, your mindset is to attack with the pacers.”
At the end of day 4’s play, Pakistan National Cricket Team were 23/1 and trailing by 94 runs. The match was headed for a draw until something drastic happened and the pitch started helping the sears.
Notably, Pakistan posted a huge score of 448/6d on the board after being down and out at 16/3 in the first innings. Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel were the saviors of the Green Men as they batted exceptionally and smashed a terrific ton. Rizwan played a sensational innings of 171 runs while Shakeel scored 141 runs.
In reply, Bangladesh team batted better and managed to score 565 runs. The best performers among the visitors were Mushfigur Rahim (191), Shadman Islam (93) and Mehidi Hasan Miraz (77).
