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Pakistan's home advantage turns into nightmare as batters exposed on rank turners vs SA

Anurag Dasgupta

How Pakistan prepared graveyard for themselves [Source: AFP Photo] How Pakistan prepared graveyard for themselves [Source: AFP Photo]

Pakistan lost a huge opportunity to win the Test series against South Africa as the hosts, somehow, crumbled in the second Test and lost the match, allowing the visitors to level the series. So much was said about the quality of the Pakistan team at home, but after winning the first Test in Lahore, the side came crashing down to Earth.

After winning the first Test, an overconfident Pakistan team dished out a graveyard for the batters as big fans were installed to dry the surface to prepare a turning track. However, this move turned on them as the Proteas side had enough firepower in their spin arsenal to inflict a crushing defeat, and as a result, the hosts have nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide.

How Pakistan has dug their grave by preparing turning pitches

The Pakistan team suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of England in Multan last year, and that loss did more damage to their cricket than anyone anticipated. After that defeat, the home team decided - Enough is enough, we will prepare rank turners to win games at home.

The move actually worked for a brief period as Pakistan roared back to beat England and capture the series. “Aaqib Ball”, as it was called then, defeated West Indies in the first Test at home, but the pitches turned graveyard for Pakistan batters in the next Test as Jomel Warrican turned into prime Shane Warne and spun his magic to thrash Pakistan.

The Men in Green didn’t learn from their past mistakes and prepared similar surfaces for the South Africa series, and the result remained the same. They won the first Test convincingly, but were brought down to Earth by the South African spinners in Rawalpindi.

Aaqib Javed, Shan Masood, and Pakistan management dished out such surfaces to give advantage to their spinners, but they forgot that Pakistan batters, themselves, have a poor track record against spin-bowling.

In the second Test match in Rawalpindi vs South Africa, the Pakistan side lost 17 wickets to spinners, and this led to their demise in the game.

While Pakistan spin bowlers utilised the conditions to perfection, the management forgot that their batters lacked the basic technique to counter quality spinners, and as a result, the team lost the plot, and the game.

Spin wickets, the only way for Pakistan to win games?

Under captain Babar Azam, Pakistan used to dish out highways, which benefited no one. The results hardly came out, and the output was nothing. England defeated Pakistan in 2022, Australia defeated them in the same year, and the team lacked an identity.

However, under Shan Masood and Aaqib Javed, the team has a realistic chance of winning a Test match or two, mainly due to the domination of their spin bowlers. Earlier, the highways used to make sure that individuals scored truckloads of runs without contributing to the team’s cause. However, now, at least the spinners are contributing towards Pakistan’s occasional victories.

But this ultra-spin-pitch approach comes with consequences. While the likes of Sajid Khan, Noman Ali, and now Asif Afridi will dominate in home conditions, the Pakistan batters will have to find ways to score runs. What is the point of picking up 20 wickets if your batters aren’t backing you with runs?

The team has certainly dug a grave by making rank turners, but ironically, it is the only way they can win matches at home, and hence, the batters will need to come up with a solution for the next Test series.