Pakistan’s assistant coach Azhar Mahmood has shown his surprise to see the surface in Rawalpindi on Day 3 of the first Test against Bangladesh. The former all-rounder also shared Pakistan didn’t misread the wicket, but it didn’t behave the way they expected as well. However, Bangladesh started the day at 27-0 after Pakistan had declared their innings on 448/6. While the hosts got wickets, they failed to
restrict the opponent as Bangladesh reached 316/5 at stumps.

Speaking at a presser after Day 3 (August 23), Mahmood stated as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo, “The reason we didn’t play a spinner was there was grass on the pitch and we thought it would favour the seamers. We were hoping for that. But the three hours the pitch was sunned before the game started on the first day may have made a difference. The wicket dried out; we didn’t think it would dry out so quickly, and that made it play differently. Anyone who looked at the wicket would have thought it would be a seaming track. We can’t do anything about the fact it didn’t behave that way. We didn’t make a mistake reading the pitch, it just didn’t play like we thought it should.”

However, they seemed to be regaining control of the game when Saim Ayub dismissed Shakib Al Hasan very cheaply. Nevertheless, Litton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim added an unbroken 98-run stand to steady the ship. Mahmood also felt Pakistan’s indiscipline allowed Bangladesh to play aggressively as well.

“We were not disciplined enough in the last 12 overs. If you assess the overall day, we were great in 80 overs. With the second new ball, we strayed from the plan. Then they attacked. We allowed them to play that type of cricket. But you can also score runs easier off the new ball, and they utilised that to great effect,” he concluded.