KARACHI: Faced with a deficit of 295 runs in their first innings with three days of play to come here at the National Stadium, Pakistan are hoping to end their Test season on a winning note. It’s been a bumper home season with Australia, England and New Zealand having toured the country but it is in the second and final Test against the latter that Pakistan are looking to notch their first win.

Having lost the three-game series to Australia in March before being whitewashed by England last month, Babar Azam’s men drew the opening Test against New Zealand. Batting surfaces have been the norm but there was great clamour for sporting wickets ahead of the second Test. What’s transpired so far, for all the vows made by interim chief selector Shahid Afridi, it is yet another batting track. New Zealand amassed 449 in their first innings with Pakistan at 154-3 at the close on the second day.

Faced potentially with a fourth-innings chase, questions for Pakistan are now on how the pitch will play. “It looks like a result-oriented wicket,” Pakistan’s batting coach Moha­m­mad Yousuf told reporters on Tuesday in a back-and-forth exchange in which he first said he’d been told by experts that Pakistan doesn’t have the clay to produce a turner before claiming that the side didn’t have a lot of bowling experience.

“It’s not me but the experts who say that we don’t have the clay to make pitches that produce a lot of spin,” said Yousuf, adding that he didn’t expect the wicket to hold and not break too much come the fifth day. Countered that Pakistan had been producing batting-friendly wickets since star batter Babar had been made captain, the classy former batter stated that things had changed since the time when Pakistan had legendary pacers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. “It’s a young team with a lot of new players,” Yousuf would go on to say. “You need experience and loads of it if you’re going to do well on bowling-friendly wickets.”

New Zealand pacer Matt Henry, speaking after Yousuf, would offer a more straightforward answer to how he’d found the pitch. “It’s a good batting surface,” Henry, whose quickfire 66 not out in a 104-run last-wicket partnership with Ajaz Patel fired New Zealand to an imposing total. “There was a bit of assistance and there was some skid off the wicket. Once the ball got older, reverse swing came into play but we didn’t bowl according to the plan we had. We’ll try to put ourselves in a better position tomorrow.”

Henry gave New Zealand their first breakthrough with the ball when he dismissed Abdullah Shafique, raising questions over Pakistan opener’s ability against the short ball. “He’s trying and will get out of this [lack of form],” Yousuf said, when asked if he’d given his input to the right-hander as he struggled for runs. “At this point in time, I can only do some fine-tuning and we can only give him confidence.” There were also questions on Shan Masood, who was dismissed trying to play one shot too many. “It was bad luck as his cut went straight to the fielder,” defended Yousuf.

While both Abdullah and Shan were trying to score quickly, as was Babar, the approach changed when Saud Shakeel came in to bat with Pakistan at 99-3. Saud was laboriously slow and ended the day with 13 off 75 alongside opener Imam-ul-Haq, who was on 74. “You have to play according to the situation of the game,” Yousuf would say, before turning philosophical. “The ground is an examination room.”

A test awaits Pakistan on Wednesday. Henry was reminded that the last time he scored a half-century for New Zealand, against South Africa in February last year, he also took seven wickets. “I wish cricket worked like that,” a smiling Henry remarked. “It will be a tough workout for us. But I hope the wickets will come.”

Published in Dawn, january 4th, 2023