The historic return of the Australian cricket team to Pakistan for the 3 match Test series began with a quite a dull start as the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium’s pitch for the first Test was the centre of attention for throughout the Match. The pitch has been criticised a lot by cricket experts and now a former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi himself has criticised the pitch.
It was all set to be a historic return of the Australian team to Pakistan, but turned out to be a rather disappointing match. The pitch that was used for the match, was being criticised from the day before the match, when the first look of the pitch surfaced on the Internet.
It was completely flat pitch, which many fans have compared it with a normal road. As expected, it is a pitch where almost all the batsman in the world would want to play on, and which the bowlers want to avoid.
It was completely a nightmare of a match for the bowling departed of both the teams. Pakistan put on 476 runs, thanks to centuries from Azhar Ali and Imam-ul-Haq. Australia boasts of some of the top pacers in the world in the form of Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, but they were all just a normal bowler during the match, with no effect.
And you would expect that that the team that is chasing the first inning score, might find it difficult, but it was a complete different scene as Australia faced no problem from Pakistani bowlers and put up 459 runs in response to Pakistan’s 476. Pakistan’s opening duo of Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq went on to score centuries in Pakistan’s 2nd inning, with no bowler even able to trouble them as the match ended in a draw.
While talking to Saama TV, former Pakistan cricketer and legendary all-rounder Shahid Afridi was furious with the pitch. He said that Pakistan has a good bowling strength and can bowl out Australia, but the bottomline was that they shouldn’t lose.
He said that it was not like that the Pakistani batsmen can’t play Aussie bowlers and cricket has evolved, thus Pakistan also needs to evolve to be counted among the best.
He believes that for the remaining two Tests in Lahore and Karachi, there will be competitive pitch. He also added that Pakistan needs to take advantage of the home series, because when they will go to Australia, they will struggle.
