Having amassed 556 against England over nearly two days of batting at Multan, Pakistan would have felt safe. After all, there had been only two bigger scores by home teams in eventual defeats in Test cricket – and one of them was in the 19th century.

England reached 249-3. At that point Pakistan were a couple of wickets away from gaining the upper hand, but that never happened. They could not strike before the fourth day – after a 454-run stand in less than a full day’s cricket. Joe Root hit 262 in 375 balls. Harry Brook, 317 in 322. England’s scoring rate of 5.48 enabled them to bat until well into that afternoon. Despite batting an over fewer than Pakistan, England led by 267 – and won by an innings.

That one stand and eventual defeat did what ten Tests across four home series had failed to: they prompted Pakistan to make drastic changes and find a formula that would get them 20 wickets.

The barren phase

Pakistan’s last home series win had come against South Africa, back in 2020-21.

In 2021-22, they greeted Australia with three extremely flat surfaces. After two drab draws, a stunning session of old-ball fast bowlingby Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins – the kind one expects in Pakistan – followed by a bold declaration, led to Pakistan’s first home series defeat since 2007-08.

Later that year, England became the first team to clean-sweep Pakistan in Pakistan, that too by a 3-0 margin. In the same winter, they were content to keep New Zealand to a 0-0 draw. All five Tests were played on flat pitches. Even in the WTC era, Pakistan continued to stubbornly resist preparing bowler-friendly strips. It was almost as if they did not care for the WTC at all.

Pakistan hosted Bangladesh next. A year and a half had passed, but the blueprint had not changed. Pakistan rolled out a lifeless surface at Rawalpindi and declared on 448-6. Bangladesh responded with 565. Then, on the fifth morning, Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz ran through Pakistan, sharing seven wickets for 65 runs.

In the next Test, Mehidy had a five-wicket haul in the first innings. The Pakistan seamers had Bangladesh at 26-6, but the lower middle order turned things around before the touring seamers sealed the match. Having come on the tour without a single Test win against Pakistan, Bangladesh returned with a 2-0 sweep.

The Bangladesh seamers played a significant part in this historic triumph, taking 21 wickets at 29.71, but their Pakistan counterparts (19 at 34.57) did not fare too poorly. It was the spinners (Bangladesh 15 at 25.20, Pakistan 5 at 68.20) that made the difference.

Bangladesh showed the kind of bowling attack that could win Test matches in Pakistan for teams that did not have big batters in the XI. However, it took a trigger for Pakistan to make a drastic change to their bowling attack. That came from Root and Brook.

Drastic measures

The new selection committee (the newest at that point, at least) took some drastic calls after the first Test. Dropping Babar Azam predictably dominated the news cycles, but it was merely a case of temporarily leaving out an out-of-form superstar. Babar was obviously going to return. While a bold selectorial move, it was not a change in strategy.

Unlike replacing Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah with an all-spin attack and using a reused pitch at the same venue.

The birthplace of reverse swing, Pakistan has been perceived as the land of pace bowling over the years. It would be difficult to keep all four of Fazal Mahmood, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, and Waqar Younis out of an all-time Pakistan XI. There are stories of fast bowlers picked from the obscurity of street cricket and propelled to the highest level in the span of a year, often less.

One cannot blame the selectors for backing the fast bowlers in a country like that, Test after Test, series after series, year after year – until the Root-Brook stand.

Read more: Teams to take 20 spin wickets in a Test: Pakistan’s 60/60 run sets new world record

The solution lay in front of them. When they swept Bangladesh 2-0 in Bangladesh in 2021-22, Sajid Khan was their leading wicket-taker, with 16 wickets at 15. And at Sri Lanka in 2023, Noman Ali (10 wickets at 20) and Abrar Ahmed (10 at 23.90) had shared the spoils, though Naseem had a part to play. Even in that 2021-22 South Africa series at home, Noman and Yasir Shah had shared 16 wickets. These were the last three series they won in Asia.

Using spin to win home Tests was, thus, a route Pakistan were capable of following but had simply chosen not to. It is something India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh have done from time to time, but not Pakistan, at least across a sustained period of time.

But now, at the second Test against England, they hit the reboot button hard. They prepared a rank turner. They picked Noman and Sajid and, in Abrar’s absence, leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood. Aamer Jamal, the only seamer of the side, was an all-rounder.

Midway through a home season, Pakistan switched to a plan B. From young, exciting fast bowlers, they now backed seasoned finger-spinners to bowl them to Test match wins.

Sajid opened the bowling. Noman came on first change after Jamal’s token spell. They accounted for 54.2 of Pakistan’s 67.2 overs in the first innings, and bowled throughout the 33.3-over second innings. They claimed all 20 wickets, and Pakistan’s winless streak came to a halt.

For perspective, across their previous three home Tests in the same season, Pakistani spinners had taken only eight wickets.

The duo shared 19 wickets in the next Test. Zahid got the other. Two Tests, forty wickets to spin, two wins. Enough to bury the memes and jokes around the giant fans used to dry the surfaces.

Watching Sajid and Noman win one Test after another was like watching Harry and Ron carry the Ring to Mordor: efficient, no doubt, but alien heroes in the land of a supply chain of young fast bowlers. Spin is spin, yaar does not have the same zing to it.

Naturally, they stuck to their plan against the West Indies. Twenty wickets fell to spin again – Sajid nine, Noman six, Abrar five.

What lies ahead?

At 38, Noman is unlikely to be around for a long time. Sajid, 31, has a few years ahead of him. If Pakistan dig deep into their domestic pool, they will find spinners they can trust on home surfaces, where they would play three of their six series in every WTC cycle. If they get an away series in Asia, even better.

At the same time, they can back their fast bowlers to get points outside Asia. It is a plan India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh have adhered to for some time, some with better effect than the others. There is no reason for Pakistan to not find success.

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