PAK vs AUS | Ramiz Raja puts light on Rawalpindi pitch
Chairman Ramiz Raja who is Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was” compelled” to issue a statement of “hope” during the first Test of the historic Australia series. after great condemnation about pitch behavior for the duration of the first Test of the historic Australia series.
The first Test was largely criticized for being too benign and dead as all five days remained dull, while only 14 wickets fell during the five days, the cricket fans showed exasperation with the tame draw as on the surface.
“I totally understand a draw cannot be a good advertisement for Test cricket. In five days results should have come and in these days 90% of Test matches get results,” he said.
“The first thing is when I took charge as the PCB chief, my statement made headlines on pitches when I said that pitches need to be massively redone.”
“When I came in September, the cricket season was in progress and it took almost five to six months to prepare one pitch. Off-season you will see [the difference] as we are bringing soil from Australia. Here we are also experimenting and have prepared some soil through soil experts and we will redo 50 to 60 pitches throughout Pakistan. We will do this when our season closes in March-April,” Ramiz said.
Looking Forward to test matches”
“Look, it is a three-match Test series so there is a lot of cricket left and we don’t want to play in the lap of Australia by making a fast and bouncy pitch. It is necessary when we play at home we should play according to our strength,” he emphasized.
“Unfortunately we had limited resources in fast bowling as Hasan Ali and Faheem got unfit. There was a brand new opening pair. Abdullah Shafique had played two or three matches. So it was thought he would be able to click against a strong Australian attack. Similarly, Imam-ul-Haq was staging a comeback too. Therefore when your bowling and opening pair is disturbed and raw so you get changes according to that.”
“Still I know that the performance has instilled a lot of confidence in Pakistan. Batting, especially, showed that, and in bowling too a spinner took six wickets. These are bright points. But fans should understand that we will try our level best to have a result-oriented series but it is not easy to prepare pitches overnight,” he said.
“We are to beat Australia and prepare our strategy carefully”, Ramiz said.
“Look, it’s our huge achievement that Australia has come here and I hope this series will be very interesting. Don’t jump the gun, there is a lot of cricket to come,” he signed off.
