Pakistan has stepped up its attempts to create a rotating pitch for its decider against England, using industrial-sized fans, outdoor heaters and windbreaks in a bid to dehydrate the exterior of the Rawalpindi cricket stadium.
Rawalpindi is, in most cases, one of the flattest pitches in Test cricket, with minimal support for the spinners. Bangladesh spin-off Mehidy Hasan Miraz took 10 wickets from his 2-0 win in the last Rawalpindi generation, but since the venue hosted Tests again in 2019, the spinners have averaged around 50 runs per wicket over there.
The seam bowlers have fared better, taking a wicket every 34 runs, with the typical assist during a Test against South Africa in January 2021. On a surface that provided support to the seamers throughout the game, Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali took nine of South Africa’s ten wickets in the fourth innings, eight of them in the last over. All four entries recorded ratings between 200 and 300, and the PCB previously thought it was the same gold for a Pindi Test wicket.
On Sunday, the field crew had set up three huge heaters and an industrial-sized fan at each end of the field, drying it out with scorching wind, with a windbreak at each end to accumulate heat. The Pakistan players and team inspected the exterior when they trained on Monday morning, a level at which the enthusiasts kept up best. He endured becoming dehydrated in the afternoon heat.
In particular, the test strip is undoubtedly one of the three best to have been cut in the square; Both options are tracking strips, one on each side of the shade. England’s seamers used a dehydrated and abrasive pitch to spin the ball back in the second match in Multan, but a grassy pitch and lush pitch could complicate this pace.
England did not teach on Monday and is open in its consultation on Tuesday. “I don’t know what to expect. I haven’t seen anything,” Jack Leach, who is the leading wicket-taker in the order, told the BBC. “We’ll go to training and have a look at it. I’m pretty clear about what I’m doing and that doesn’t really change depending on the wicket. We’ll see what it is.”
