Australia tour of Pakistan - March/April 2022

[icyman]

Will they try to make a match of it? I say, go hard at the Aussies and give them 30 overs to chase down whatever they reach. Atleast, it will make for interesting viewing on what has been an otherwise dull 4 days

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Dire.

 

[ahmedleo414]

Say what you will about the pitch. I'm happy that Abdullah shafique and Imam were both able to get their 100s against an Australian bowling attack, mind you that mostly faced against spin but even still it's a good achievement.

Abdullah is a player for the future hopefully he can continue on the same track

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Say what you will about the pitch. I'm happy that Abdullah shafique and Imam were both able to get their 100s against an Australian bowling attack, mind you that mostly faced against spin but even still it's a good achievement.

Abdullah is a player for the future hopefully he can continue on the same track

I will say Australia could've stayed at home and taken as many wickets.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Say what you will about the pitch. I'm happy that Abdullah shafique and Imam were both able to get their 100s against an Australian bowling attack, mind you that mostly faced against spin but even still it's a good achievement.

Abdullah is a player for the future hopefully he can continue on the same track

I would rather be disappointed of not winning at home against this Australian side. They are a terrible team in subcontinent conditions. Probably the worst of the last decade in these conditions if we are to ignore this game!

IND vs AUS Cricket Scorecard, 1st Test at Pune, February 23 - 25, 2017

Get cricket scorecard of 1st Test, IND vs AUS, IND v AUS 2016/17 at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune dated February 23 - 25, 2017.

www.espncricinfo.com

 

[Khan Sahab54]

 

[Aislabie]

I will go with Abdullah Shafique. He is an uncapped Pakistani batsman.

Asad's XI:
1. Yashasvi Jaiswal
2. Prithvi Shaw
3. Babar Azam
4. Abdullah Shafique
8. Jofra Archer
10. Shaheen Afridi

This old draft pick aged remarkably well. Dude had only played one professional game when Asad pulled him out

 

[LiveLoveABD]

My lord knows how much I love Wasim Akram. I don't think bowlers like him and Warne will ever be seen. Younis is a disgrace to the Pakistani star. Absolute disgrace. Him and Shastri have drowned themselves in shame and arrogance and to Shastri's credit he has never made fixing/religious slurs. That in itself shows the shallow human being Younis is. I refuse to even acknowledge him as someone who was divided by an artificial border drawn by politicians. He is just filth.

On the test match. Ramiz Raja has all but admitted the pitch was doctored. This Pakistan team is very very talented and they don't need such doctored tracks to protect their reputations. You cannot win if you're not brave to lose. Of all the faults in Kohli, this was not one of them.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Of all the faults in Kohli, this was not one of them.

Hope you don't get tagged as Kohli hater by someone after posting this.

 

[icyman]

Imam: 'When we go to Australia, they don't make pitches consulting us'

"I didn't tell the curator to make a pitch according to me. It was the same for Australia, yet we got their 10 wickets"

www.espncricinfo.com

Imam insists that Pakistan prepared the pitch to play to their strengths? Seriously? You are a far better team than one relying on lifeless pitches. Even the ICC has rated it as poor.

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

Imam insists that Pakistan prepared the pitch to play to their strengths? Seriously? You are a far better team than one relying on lifeless pitches. Even the ICC has rated it as poor.

Did Pakistan prepare the pitch to play to their strengths? Yes. All teams prepare pitches their home ground pitches to accentuate their positives. I doubt any sane team/ground management is going to go to their opposition and ask 'how will you like the pitch for this game, sir'.

Did Pakistan rely on said pitch to beat Australia? No. I don't see how you're getting 'preparing a pitch as per their strengths' to mean 'we're going to rely solely on how the pitch turns out to stand a chance of beating our opposition'.

Those are two very different things mate.

As far as the ICC rating it poor, I'm honestly shocked. Calling it a 'poor' pitch would be an understatement, I honestly thought it would receive more than the one demerit point it actually ended up receiving.

 

[CerealKiller]

As far as the ICC rating it poor, I'm honestly shocked. Calling it a 'poor' pitch would be an understatement, I honestly thought it would receive more than the one demerit point it actually ended up receiving.

It was rated as below average, not poor.
One thing that everyone seems to have forgotten is that Pakistan actually bowled Australia out, and 70 overs were lost due to rain and bad light.
I was in favour of making Australia chase a target with a RRR of 6+, but honestly it would’ve been a lose-lose scenario for Pakistan, because no way we would’ve bowled them out quickly.
As for the pitch, if Faheem Ashraf and Hasan Ali had been available, it would've stayed in its original form, i'm sure. Considering our weakened attack, they chose to make it far less seam-friendly, but overdid it. Nothing wrong with maximising home conditions.
As always, Asian teams, especially when playing against England, Australia, South Africa or New Zealand, are stigmatised for this, while those same countries are given a pass for "doctoring" pitches to their liking.

 

[icyman]

Did Pakistan prepare the pitch to play to their strengths? Yes. All teams prepare pitches their home ground pitches to accentuate their positives. I doubt any sane team/ground management is going to go to their opposition and ask 'how will you like the pitch for this game, sir'.

Did Pakistan rely on said pitch to beat Australia? No. I don't see how you're getting 'preparing a pitch as per their strengths' to mean 'we're going to rely solely on how the pitch turns out to stand a chance of beating our opposition'.

See, most countries prepare pitches to suit their team. That's a no-brainer. However, it was baffling of Imam to come out in support of the particular pitch being prepared to suit their strengths.

for your 2nd point, I got a ocunter question: Why wouldn't you rely on your strengths / pitch to beat them? The pitch + your team's capabilities should out do the opposition. The sub-continent is known for preparing spinning tracks that suit their team's style of play. Not saying Pakistan should have prepared one. I am just saying" prepare the pitch per your team's strengths, not prepare one to blunt the effectiveness of your bowlers entirely".

The pitch was flat and was rightly rated as under par by the ICC. Doling out such pitches will only reduce interest in the game. Surely, no one wants to see simply runs being scored, do they?

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

See, most countries prepare pitches to suit their team. That's a no-brainer. However, it was baffling of Imam to come out in support of the particular pitch being prepared to suit their strengths.

But Imam never came out to defend the pitch though, did he? Here's the link to the interview from which the above article is transcribed. He was asked not one, but several questions by several journalists regarding this particular pitch and he replied to them with completely rational answers, basically saying it ain't his job to give a shit about the pitch. He didn't actively make an effort to save face for this pitch because he got a hundred in each innings. If you think that's what's happened, then let me assure you, that's not what's happened.

His exact quote from the article you linked - "I didn't tell the curator to make a pitch according to me, nor is he my relative. It was the same for Australia, yet we got their 10 wickets and none of them managed to score 100. I didn't ask for the pitch so that I can score a hundred in each innings. The Karachi pitch will be the same as it has been in first-class cricket and I won't be playing at it for the first time. But at the same time whatever Test I had played before this I played outside in South Africa, Ireland and England in away Tests. So whatever the pitch will be - either it's green, yellow or brown - my job is to play cricket and I will play and keep believing in my practice."

for your 2nd point, I got a ocunter question: Why wouldn't you rely on your strengths / pitch to beat them? The pitch + your team's capabilities should out do the opposition. The sub-continent is known for preparing spinning tracks that suit their team's style of play. Not saying Pakistan should have prepared one. I am just saying" prepare the pitch per your team's strengths, not prepare one to blunt the effectiveness of your bowlers entirely".

The pitch was flat and was rightly rated as under par by the ICC. Doling out such pitches will only reduce interest in the game. Surely, no one wants to see simply runs being scored, do they?

That's exactly what we tried to do, except it just didn't work out that way. The pitch + our team's capabilities is what the intention was, but rain ruined the first aspect of that entirely. I don't have the time to scroll past one week old tweets from every reputable journalist in Pakistan posting reports on the pitch leading up to the game. It was supposed to be a hard, cracked pitch that was meant to spin as the game progressed, but rain on Day 3 ruined that. The pitch that was suppose to dry up and crack couldn't do that because of constant downpour at the end of Day 3, and before the start of Day 4. Did you see how much turn there was on offer on Day 5 despite all that? Precisely why Pakistan went with only 2 pacers despite having 3921 in the squad.

That raises the question, why try to prepare a pitch like that when you know it's going to rain? Well, the answer is simple. Pakistan didn't want to. They didn't even wanna play Australia in Islamabad/Rawalpindi during this time of the year for this exact reason - fluctuating climate, but CA heavily insisted that all matches be played here because of security concerns. Even the Tests in Lahore and Karachi were pitched (no pun intended) by CA to be held in Pindi, but that was later sorted so Lahore and Karachi don't end up without any cricket on this historic tour. Just because Pakistan had to give in to CA's request of moving the venues doesn't mean that all of a sudden they're going to change their game plan to prepare a damp/green wicket against Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood because that's more suited to the climate. Why the fukc would they just relent, and not even attempt to make a pitch that's suited to their strength (a spinning turf) despite it being an objectively awful idea?

Also, c'mon! Give us some leeway. Pakistan hasn't constantly hosted enough Test cricket to know what they're doing, especially with the pitches. When we played Test cricket in UAE, all the ground staff was local. For anyone to rinse PCB for this pitch being bad is fair, no one and nothing should be immune to criticism. But to treat it as the end of Test cricket in Pakistan is ridiculous.

 

[AsadRM]

This old draft pick aged remarkably well. Dude had only played one professional game when Asad pulled him out

I've known him since his club days, and I was sure he was going to be the next big thing. But, I'm glad that others are seeing the same potential in him and he's making a name for himself now!