Former Australia captain Mark Taylor has taken a dig at Ramiz Raja for his statement following the dull draw in Rawalpindi. Only 14 wickets fell over 5 days in Rawalpindi while 1187 runs were scored in total, and consequently, the pitch was rated below average by the match referee.
After the unattractive draw, Raja, the PCB chairman, conceded that such kind of a game “is never a good advertisement for Test cricket”. However, he is also indicated that kind of surface – flat with no help for the seamers – was created to nullify Australia’s pace attack as well as mitigate for Pakistan’s own depleted attack in the absence of Hasan Ali and Faheem Ashraf.
Mark Taylor was totally unimpressed by PCB preparing such a surface which didn’t help the fast bowlers at all.
“Unfortunately, I think it shows where Pakistan cricket is at. They have got some very good cricketers at the moment, and I would love to see their establishment be a little more adventurous with what they’re telling them,” Mark Taylor told Nine’s Sports
The second Test in Karachi also was similarly flat with Australia batting over two days, and although Pakistan were bundled out cheaply in their first innings, they have batted over 110 overs with loss of just three wickets in their second essay and are well-placed to avoid a loss on the Day 5 pitch which still hasn’t shown much signs of deterioration.
Mark Taylor was disappointed in the PCB as they didn’t show faith in their own bowlers and batters to face up the Aussie bowling. The 57-year-old shot at Raja’s defensive mindset to not lose the series but also making it hard for their own team to win games.
“Firstly, the two pitches we’ve had, at Rawalpindi and at Karachi, have been roads. They are hard, you can see there’s not much grass on them. Pakistan bowling is very good, they’ve got some very good quicks these days. It looks to me like they haven’t backed their side in general.
“More or less they’re saying ‘don’t lose this series’. That is my worry. Just don’t lose. Pakistan pitches have never been minefields or green tops, but you would’ve expected a bit more grass with their quicks. And their batting is also very good. I would’ve loved to see good pitches put out for the first two (matches) and I think we would have had a very good series,” Mark Taylor added.
