LAHORE: A dour draw on a lifeless pitch in Rawalpindi in many ways doused the enthusiasm of Pakistan’s cricket fans seeing Australia play in their own backyard for the first time since 1998.

Only 14 wickets fell over five days in the opening Test of the three-game series which concluded on Tuesday with batters overwhelmingly dominant over the bowlers.

Criticism has been abound despite Pakistan humbling Australia’s three-pronged pace attack of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and skipper Pat Cummins, who had been irresistible during their 4-0 drubbing of England in the Ashes earlier this year.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja admitted on Wednesday the draw “wasn’t a good advertisement” for Test cricket but added the pitch was prepared keeping the home side’s strengths in mind.

“I understand the frustration of the fans,” Ramiz said in a video posted on PCB’s official Twitter feed.

“It would’ve been good if a result came out. But the point to be considered is that this is a series of three Test matches. Just for the heck of it, we can’t prepare a fast pitch or a bouncy pitch and put the game in Australia’s lap.”

The former Pakistan captain also pointed out that Pakistan had been depleted due to injuries to key pacers heading into the first Test.

“It’s important that when we play at home, we play to our strengths,” he added. “We also had limited resources, unfortunately. Our opening-ball pair was disturbed because Hasan Ali and Faheem were both unfit.

“Similarly we had a brand-new opening pair — Abdullah Shafique had only played 2-3 matches, and we were keeping a worrisome eye on his form, and whether he could handle such a good bowling attack or not. Imam-ul-Haq was also making a comeback.

“When your opening bowlers and batters are new and raw, you have to prepare according to that. We also didn’t have leg-spinner Yasir Shah so we came into the field with an under-sourced 15.

“And we should not ignore that Australia is a powerhouse and they came here after winning the Ashes. And giving respect to their talent we could not go so quickly on experimental mood keeping in front our strength.”

The PCB chief added that Pakistan should dwell on the positives ahead of the second Test which begins in Karachi from Saturday.

“I understand that we have gained a lot of confidence from this performance,” he added.

“The batting has sparkled, and on the bowling front, a spinner [Nauman Ali] has taken six wickets. So these are bright points.

“Fans should understand that we will make every effort to have a result-oriented series, but you can’t wave a magic wand and get green pitches or result-oriented pitches. We need to beat Australia, and we need to prepare our strategy accordingly, and the strategy is for low-bouncy tracks where reverse can happen, where lbw and bowled will be in play, where our spinners can show their performance, and where the batters, who have grown up on low-bounce pitches, can utilise that advantage.

“I want to say again that it wasn’t a good advertisement, but keep your morale high and keep watching. It’s a big achievement to have brought so many great Australian players here, and on an individual level there’s a lot to look forward to, from both the Pakistan team and the Australian team. I hope that this series, going forward, will become more interesting, but only one match is done, so don’t jump the gun, there’s a lot of cricket to be played.”

AP adds: Talking to reporters after the draw on Tuesday, Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley said the occasion of Australia’s first Test in Pakistan in 24 years had “really surpassed any concerns about the pitch”, although he said he’d like an even contest in the next Test.

“We’d love to see an even contest between bat and ball. We want to see results in Test matches,” Hockley said. “I think the two teams had an opportunity to really size each other up, so, you know, we’d love to see a bit more balance in the pitches for Karachi and Lahore.”

Security concerns had kept the Aussies away from Pakistan for nearly a quarter of a century but Hockley said the relationship between PCB and CA had been strengthened thanks to this series.

“We firmly believe in Australia that we need a strong global game,” he said. “And a strong global game [means] the best countries are playing regularly against each other. We’ve got two teams here that are that are extremely strong and very competitive.

“Winning away is the pinnacle. The Australian players have just come off a very successful Ashes series and they want to test themselves in in the toughest conditions.”

Andrew McDonald, who is Australia’s interim coach in aftermath of Justin Langer’s departure last month, said he was hoping for a more even contest between bat and ball in Karachi.

“We knew we were in for attritional cricket, probably not as attritional as that,” he said of the series-opening match. “Clearly it was in favour of the batters. I think we’ll get a totally different surface come Karachi. Probably well see the game speed up.”

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2022