Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi criticized PCB chairman Rameez Raja for his comments about the Rawalpindi pitch for the ongoing first Test against England. The pitch faced scrutiny on the first day of the match where England scored over 500 in emphatic fashion as Pakistan’s bowlers struggled badly against a counter-attacking batting approach.
Raja made a shocking statement that Pakistan still haven’t cracked the code of making an ideal Test match pitch.
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Afridi was not impressed by the PCB chairman’s comments and said the country has been hosting international matches for a long time and Raja’s statement shocked him.
“The way Rameez was speaking, I mean I was shocked to hear him saying that we cannot make such tracks. International matches are going on in Pakistan for so long but then we talk like this. Rameez said he wanted a turning track, I think this season it would have been something big,” Afridi told Sama TV.
The legendary all-rounder suggested that the Rawalpindi track was always used to assist fast bowlers and it was unnecessary to change it for the first Test against England, which saw them on the verge of losing the first Test.
The pitch in Rawalpindi has always been for seam and bounce fast bowlers. Why did he even change it? We are scared of losing this Test now and want to win but don’t know the technique.
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Afridi did not hold back and compared the Rawalpindi pitch to Faisalabad or Sialkot and pointed out that such flat pitches are pulling the bowlers down from performing to their full potential.
He said, ‘If we are talking about the Rawalpindi pitch, I have never seen such a track. I have also seen a lot of domestic matches there, but I have never seen a pitch which is so flat. It reminded me of Faisalabad or Sialkot track. The four big grounds – Multan, Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi – I have seen fast bowlers enjoying those pitches because of the bounce. In fact, there was a time when we used to see a lot of fast bowlers coming from Rawalpindi.”
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