“I would,” Masood said, when asked directly if he would like to see the ball spin in the third Test. “I don’t know if I’ve seen it change in Rawalpindi. That’s another issue. You want a team that can win anywhere… We want to get 20 wickets wherever we play, and we want to back that up with the bat.
“I don’t think there will be autumn in Pakistan. There is a summer that turns into winter, so we are still hoping that the sun can play its part and that the wicket is drier… The gardeners are already there. They are working on a test ground and we will try to create a good test ground where both teams can choose 20 wickets.”
Masood spoke before the first Test about his desire for Pakistan to play on pitches that would bring their seamers into play, but the decision to rest Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah from the last two Tests suggests that is unlikely to be achieved. a green-top. England coach McCullum predicted the surface will be “the antithesis of the green seamer” for the decider.
“I don’t really care,” McCullum said. “That’s one of the best aspects of playing cricket around the world, right? You are challenged in different conditions and the home teams should have the benefit of playing at home. I like that about the game. We said from the beginning that we would We would try to adapt to any condition we face.
“We were very realistic about how difficult this challenge would be and that we might face some extreme conditions at some point. Winning the first Test probably sped up that process, but we have no complaints so far. We were outplayed in this game. We’ll see what Rawalpindi offers us and we will try to adapt accordingly.”
Masood said Pakistan’s challenge is to learn to take 20 wickets at each of its venues. “I don’t think we can adopt a strategy where we say, ‘Oh, we have to have a rotating wicket everywhere,'” he said. “You have to know the characteristics of your terrain and your soil to be a good test team… It’s not an overnight process.”
England’s defeat by 152 runs in the second Test in Multan was their fifth defeat of seven in the subcontinent this year, after their 4-1 defeat in India. With spinners playing an important role in all five Tests, McCullum was asked if he felt his team had been caught out by spinning the pitches.
“Maybe. I don’t know,” he said. “If we had won the toss and then gotten a few more runs, would the result have been different? I don’t know. It’s hard to make that assessment. But I know these guys play very well with spin. Yes, we’ve been beaten several times. times, but we weren’t the only team that went to India and got beaten by India in spinning conditions.
“And we have a pretty good track record here [in Pakistan]. Even that Test match we won in India was probably the most extreme of spinning conditions. I don’t know: we’ll find out. I certainly don’t care if it turns into the next one. “I think we have the artillery to be able to handle it, but we’ll find out.”
McCullum also defended his aggressive approach with the bat during the second Test. “We saw in this Test match that a lot of wickets fell to people who were trying to hold on there. It was those who were prepared to be brave enough to sweep, sweep back and put pressure on the opponents, who were really able to score runs. And in one low-scoring competition, those runs proved valuable.
Matt Roller is assistant editor at Pak Gazette. @mroller98
