Masood backs policy of preparing slow test wickets

Pakistan captain Shan Masood gave a vote of confidence to his country’s controversial policy of preparing slow, spinning wickets for home tests, even after it backfired on Thursday and they lost the second test to South Africa.

Pakistan have deliberately looked to produce dry and deteriorating pitches for their spin bowlers to thrive on in home tests over the last 12 months against England, West Indies and South Africa – a decision that has attracted some criticism.

But after losing by eight wickets to South Africa at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, where giant fans were used to help dry out the pitch, Masood defended the policy.

“Look, it’s been four wins out of six since we’ve operated on these wickets,” he said.

“Obviously, the wickets have got a bit better. They’ve been much more battable. Four out of six isn’t bad considering in the two test matches we’ve lost we got into winning positions. Had we finished those games off it could easily have been six out of six.”

Pakistan came from one test down to beat England twice in a row last October when they prepared viciously spinning tracks and then drew 1-1 with West Indies in Multan in January.

The two-test series against South Africa in Lahore and Rawalpindi also saw prodigious spin, but it was the visiting team who best used the conditions in the second test to level the series.

Critics of the Pakistan approach fear it holds back the development of their fast bowlers, and this would erode their competitiveness in away series.

Pakistan had South Africa on the ropes on the third day on Wednesday but struggled to bowl them out as the tourists’ tail-enders fought a rearguard action to turn the test on its head before going on to win.

“We had a great opportunity to close it out when we had a lead of 98 with two wickets to go but those last two wickets cost us dearly, putting us under a lot of pressure, and in these conditions it’s the difference between the first innings that leads into the third and fourth innings, said Masood.

“We have a lot to work on when it comes to lower order batting, when it comes to finishing the innings off, when it comes to the third innings of batting, also when it comes to the first innings where we could have posted something north of 400, but we didn’t,” he added.