Hey friends, peace be upon you. Pakistan is playing two types of Test cricket: one on the flat tracks where we don’t play any spinners, and the other on spinning tracks in Pakistan where we only play one fast bowler. The result so far is that we’ve never won a match on the flat tracks, but since we’ve started playing on spinning tracks, we haven’t lost a single match. So, Pakistan is playing two different kinds of cricket. Congrats to Pakistan on the win! We played some amazing cricket. You can say it was a three-day match, but if you count the overs, we played 90 overs a day.
If you count it up, it comes to almost 180 overs over two days, and that's about how many overs the match lasted. Pakistan won that match, and sure, they won it pretty comfortably, but they do have some weaknesses. One thing's for sure: Pakistan has figured out how to play Test series at home, especially against India. We don’t really play series against teams that have good spinners, and their spinners are really strong. Sri Lanka is another story; we managed to beat them on their own turf. When Bangladesh came over, we didn’t make a spinning track, and we lost 2-0, but...
"Any team that came at us, we figured out their formula. We really hammered England and completely outplayed the West Indies, winning the match comfortably. But to be honest, the West Indies weren't that threatening for Pakistan. It's a different story that they managed to beat Australia in a Test match over there, but that was mainly due to their fast bowlers. Here, fast bowlers don’t really make much of an impact, so we only played one fast bowler. The point is, Pakistan is learning to play at home, and I think the next cycle of the World Test Championship is going to be interesting."
South Africa, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka are all set to visit Pakistan, and that’s going to be pretty challenging for them. But Pakistan’s journey could actually be easier than expected. I’ll write a separate blog about the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) cycle and which teams Pakistan will be playing against. It looks like Pakistan has a good shot at making it to the next WTC final, especially with the way we’re playing right now. But again, it’s all about following the same formula that Mohammad Rizwan talks about.
If we want to move forward, we need to adopt this approach in our domestic cricket as well. We have to create spin-friendly tracks there too because even our batsmen are struggling here. It's not just the visiting teams that falter; we slip up too. We were just three wickets down at 106, then we added 48 runs, and our entire team got out. And who did it? The West Indies' spinner, Veera Kan, took 10 wickets against Pakistan, giving away just 101 runs. That left-arm slow spinner was really troubling Pakistan. It’s clear that any other team coming here, especially Australia, will be prepared.
They've got a good idea of what to expect on Pakistan's pitches. West Indies has come well-prepared with their spinners too, but the thing is, unlike teams like Australia, West Indies doesn't approach it the same way. Other teams are gearing up differently. Even though Pakistan isn't playing a home series against Australia this year, we do have a series coming up against South Africa, and they've got some good spinners as well. Remember, they beat us 2-0 at home during the World Test Championship.
"Are we even going to play the final? What the result will be, that's a whole different story. But before that, Pakistan is playing at home and winning, while we're stumbling a bit. Our wickets are falling quickly. The thing is, the Pakistani batsmen are scoring runs, no doubt about it, but we’re feeling a bit nervous too. Mohammad Rizwan mentioned in the press conference that it's not just the visiting team facing issues; we're also dealing with our own problems here."
We also face challenges, obviously. When the other team sets up a fast track, our fast bowlers get to work. So if we create a spin track, their spinners will come and give us a hard time too. It’s not like they won’t. The point is, Pakistan has set a kind of role model for Test cricket, saying we want to play this way at home. So we need to carry that forward and introduce it in our domestic cricket as well. But again, like I mentioned at the start of the video, Pakistan needs to step up.
"We haven't won a single Test match on this track. We went to Australia and lost 0-2, and then we went to South Africa and lost 2-0. But in the first Test match in South Africa, we were really close to winning. Our fast bowlers bowled amazingly, and the batsmen were really struggling. You could see the batsmen wobbling against the fast bowling, both on the pitch and during spin, at home and away. So, I think our batsmen need to step up their game in the next WTC cycle because we’ve got one Test match left in the last series."
Winning these last two matches would be a nice way to wrap things up, but it’s not really going to impact the WTC much. For the next step, our batsmen need to step up and do something big. I don’t think there’s going to be any changes in the batting lineup. Shan Masood scored 50 and previously made a hundred, so he’s in a good spot. However, there’s always been a concern about his position being a bit shaky; he could slip up and not only lose his spot in the playing eleven but also his captaincy.
"Of course they'll go, and anyway, they had a subject to Captain S, but at the moment, they're scoring well. They've been making runs in South Africa and here too. They got a 50, and given the pitch, it seems pretty equal, actually. But I think these same batsmen will have to play the next cycle too. However, they really need to bring some improvement for the WTC final because Pakistan also has to tour England, which is a tricky pitch, and over there, the Pakistani batsmen tend to struggle."
"We've got some solid bowlers like Abbas, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, and Shaheen Afridi. Although we haven't used Shaheen a lot in the WTC cycle that's just wrapped up, we can definitely make use of him going forward. Honestly, I think we shouldn't really use him too much in Pakistan, especially since we played Khurram Shahzad who bowled just one over in the first innings. The point is, we really need fast bowlers here, but what we actually need are spinners. So, we've got Abrar, Numan, and Sajid ready to roll."
"We're all in this together. I think Sajid and Numan really impressed everyone. The wedding is fine for us, but we still need to find a leg-spinner, which Salman Bhatt often talks about. We could go with Ramiz or Ramiz Junior. Once we have these three or four pairs, it will be great. Having a leg-spinner is really important in Test cricket. Even if you’re playing away, you’ll get support for that because when we played good Test cricket overall, we relied on leg-spinners for a long time."
"We're missing Jahid Mahmood. We brought him in, but he didn't have much success. Last time he played against England, and this time he didn't even get to play. I think Pakistan is learning how to play at home. One issue they might face is that while they create spin-friendly tracks at home, they have to play on fast tracks abroad. That could be tough because our record shows we haven't won a single match on fast tracks, even though I generally feel optimistic."
We had them at 19 for 4, or maybe it was 16 for 4, and then Mitchell Marsh came in and scored 90 runs, and we lost the match. We were so close to winning. And then there’s the South Africa match; we were right there too. They had a partnership of about 48 runs for the last two wickets between Rabada and Michael Johnson, and Pakistan lost that match. We were really on track for points there as well."
"The bowlers are going to support us there because the batsmen tend to be a bit weak. Here, our spinners are really strong. The batsmen here are also a bit inconsistent. I feel that when the Sri Lankan team comes, they can really disturb us because in the last WTC cycle, if we won any Test series outside our home, it was against Sri Lanka. We beat them in their own backyard. But the good thing now is that Pakistan has made a good comeback. Also, we used to wonder why we can't create spin-friendly tracks."
We used to think that maybe the soil on our pitch just couldn't create spin tracks. But we found out that wasn't the case; it was our mindset that held us back. We weren't making spin tracks ourselves because some batsmen, even our own, would get a bit nervous on those kinds of pitches. Our board used to be a bit hesitant about it too. But after Aaqib Javed came on board, we changed everything and realized that we can create all sorts of pitches here, including fast ones and spin tracks.
"So, we have the formula for spin tracks that we’ll be following, and I think it’s been working out pretty well so far. But the batsmen will need to step up on both spin and fast tracks.
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