The chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board has confirmed the home side produced a pitch for the first Test designed to blunt Australia’s fast bowling attack.
The match in Rawalpindi descended into farce due to the lifeless nature of the pitch that meant the bowlers had little opportunity, with Australia taking just four wickets for the match.
It quickly became apparent the match would fizzle out into a high scoring draw, a disappointing outcome for Australia’s first Test in Pakistan for 24 years.
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In comments translated by ESPNCricinfo, Ramiz Raja conceded that the home side was happy to settle for a draw from the outset.
“I understand the frustration of the fans – undoubtedly it would have been very good if we had a result, but this is a three-Test series, and we need to understand that a lot of cricket still remains to be played,” he said.
“Just for the heck of it, we can’t prepare a fast pitch or a bouncy pitch and put the game in Australia’s lap.
“It’s important that when we play at home, we play to our strengths.”
Ramiz noted that Pakistan was fielding a brand new opening batting pair, while their bowling attack was also understrength,
“We also had limited resources, unfortunately,” he said.
“So when your opening batting pair and bowling pair are both disturbed and raw, you can’t take chances.
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“Our leg-spinner wasn’t ready, Yasir Shah was unfit, so we got on the field with an under-resourced (side), and Australia, don’t forget, are a global powerhouse, and were coming here after winning the Ashes. We respect their talent.
“So we couldn’t go into experimental mode so early, keeping our strengths in mind.”
Australian vice-captain Steve Smith labelled the Rawalpindi deck “pretty benign” and “dead”.
Leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson appears likely to make his Test debut in the second match at the expense of one of the fast bowlers.
Ramiz admitted the first Test was not a good advertisement for the game, with only 14 wickets falling across the five days, promising a complete overhaul of pitches in Pakistan, including importing soil from Australia.
“Fans should understand that we will make every effort to have a result-oriented series, but you can’t wave a magic wand and get green pitches or result-oriented pitches,” he said.
“We need to beat Australia, and we need to prepare our strategy accordingly, and the strategy is for low-bouncy tracks where reverse can happen, where lbw and bowled will be in play, where our spinners can show their performance, and where the batters, who have grown up on low-bounce pitches, can utilise that advantage.”
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