Naseem Shah slams PCB over Rawalpindi pitch: ‘Thought pacers will get help’

sanjeev

khelja|25-08-2024

Pakistan vs Bangladesh's first Test match at Rawalpindi is heading towards a draw. After four days of cricket being played, a total of 1036 runs have been scored with the loss of 17 wickets.
Pakistan have just come out to bat for the second time in the match, and trail Bangladesh (565-all-out) by 93 runs with 9 wickets in hand. The docile nature of the pitch has frustrated Pakistan fast bowler Naseem Shah, who has slammed the board for not preparing wickets that either help the fast bowlers or the spinners. The Rawalpindi pitch had plenty of grass cover on it, and was expected to help the pacers in the first Test. The first day of the Test match did help the pacers due to the cloud cover but it slowly waned away once the sun came out. A frustrated Naseem spoke in the press conference after Day 4 of the Test and said that he did not get any help from the pitch. "I'm playing a Test after more than a year and took me time to find my rhythm. The kind of weather we have right now, it's extremely hot, and we didn't get the kind of help from the surface as a bowling unit as we expected," Naseem Shah said after Day 4 of the first Test. "If we're incapable of making the sort of pitches that help fast bowlers, then we should look at whether we can produce spin wickets. However you do it, you need to use home advantage," he added. The Test matches in Pakistan have been drab affairs in the recent past with bowlers solely relying on reverse swing to grab wickets. This comes in stark contrast to other pitches across the world, who have made either sporting wickets or have handed the advantage to the bowlers. "People come to enjoy Test cricket in this heat, so you need to entertain them. What shouldn't happen is you're on the field at home and thinking this is hard work. The more you keep cricket entertaining, the better. It's something we need to seriously think about," Naseem said.  "We believed the fast bowlers would get plenty of help here. But what we were expecting didn't exactly happen. With four fast bowlers, your mindset is to take wickets with the quick balls. However, I don't think it'll spin either, because there's grass on the pitch. But the pitch is very dry underneath, and the ball isn't getting much help off the grass because of that, even if it appears like it might off the surface," the young pacer concluded on the matter.
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