Pakistan’s pace spearhead Naseem Shah has slammed the surface used for the first Test against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi. He has stressed the need to maximize home advantage as much as possible moving forward as well. However, Pakistan’s four-man specialist pace attack struggled almost the entire Day 4 as the pitch failed to help them to take wickets. Mushfiqur Rahim top-scored with 191 as they were on the field for 167.3 overs as well.

Speaking at a presser after Day 4, Naseem, who bowled 27.3 overs, said, “I’m playing a Test after more than a year and took me time to find my rhythm. The kind of weather we have right now, it’s extremely hot, and we didn’t get the kind of help from the surface as a bowling unit as we expected. If we’re incapable of making the sort of pitches that help fast bowlers, then we should look at whether we can produce spin wickets. However you do it, you need to use home advantage. People come to enjoy Test cricket in this heat, so you need to entertain them. What shouldn’t happen is you’re on the field at home and thinking this is hard work. The more you keep cricket entertaining, the better. It’s something we need to seriously think about.”

Meanwhile, the four-pronged pace attack of Pakistan bowled 117.3 overs for their nine wickets. Saim Ayub, who bowled in Tests for the first
time, took the last one. Naseem also feels the presence of grass means the ball will not spin either as well.

“We believed the fast bowlers would get plenty of help here. But what we were expecting didn’t exactly happen. With four fast bowlers, your mindset is to take wickets with the quick balls. However, I don’t think it’ll spin either, because there’s grass on the pitch. But the pitch is very dry underneath, and the ball isn’t getting much help off the grass because of that, even if it appears like it might off the surface,” Naseem Shah concluded.