Pakistan coach Azhar Mahmood explained why the team switched to a four-pronged spin attack for the second Test against England.
On Monday, Pakistan announced their playing XI a day ahead of the match – including a total of four spinners in Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Zahid Mehmood and all-rounder Salman Ali Agha. Opening batter Saim Ayub also provides a fifth option with his part-time spin.
This is a fairly drastic change from the previous match at the same venue in Multan, with pace bowlers Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah being left out of the XI. Spinner Abrar Ahmed played the previous game, but from a bowling combination point of view, has been replaced by a like-for-like player.
Azhar Mahmood: We weren't taking 20 wickets with pace
In the pre-match press conference, Pakistan assistant coach Mahmood explained Pakistan's shift from a three pacer, two spinner attack to a one pacer, four spinner attack.
He said, "Look, you have to take 20 wickets. On the pitch we are going to use, we have to think about how to take 20 wickets. We thought against England if we go with spin, try to dominate with spin, we have a chance of taking 20 wickets.
"This is the third [home] Test under the new management. Even before that we were struggling to take 20 wickets, even with pace. So we thought we have better options with spin. There were also some niggles, for Naseem [Shah] and Shaheen [Afridi]."
The pitch used in the first Test last week offered next to nothing for both pace and spin bowlers, as Pakistan scored 556 batting first before England responded with a mammoth 823-7. In fact, the same strip will be used for the second Test meaning the match will start on what could effectively be little better than a ninth-day pitch.
Mahmood: We had a clear plan on what pitches to make
Mahmood further outlined that for this home season, it had been Pakistan's plan to prepare seaming wickets when Bangladesh visited in August, and turning tracks for when England came over.
"We had a clear plan on what pitches to make against Bangladesh, and which way we have to go against England. Our approach was just this, that we will use seam against Bangladesh and spin against England, and make pitches accordingly.
"If you look at the previous pitch, our instruction was that the ball should spin. We wanted that after the second day, the ball should spin. But you saw that even on the fifth day the ball didn't spin. So I hope that in the next Test match hopefully, on a ninth-day pitch the ball spins."
In the Bangladesh series, Pakistan played an all-seam attack in the first Test on what appeared to be a green-tinged wicket initially, but flattened out considerably as the match wore on. In that series as well, they changed their bowling combination between matches, from four pacers and one spinner to three pacers and two spinners. Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah, like in this series, played the first Test but not the second.
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However, if Pakistan's plan was to prepare seaming tracks for Bangladesh and spinning ones for England, that will mean it is twice in a row now that the pitch for the first Test match against the opposition has not played to the team management's expectations.
Home advantage is becoming ever more important with the World Test Championship points at stake, and with Pakistan winless in 11 home matches now, they will have to re-examine their plans, processes, or both.
Image credit: YouTube / Pakistan Cricket
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