However, since the gamble in Multan paid off last week, preparations for a repeat have gathered pace. The curators were in Pindi before the second Test ended, and Aleem Dar and Aqib Javed, part of the selection committee, made the trip the day the game ended.
Over the weekend, industrial-sized fans and wedding-style heaters were installed, with windbreaks surrounding the surface. The heaters were gone Monday, although the giant fans were running. Some traces are visible on the fringe, especially outside the left-hander’s off-stump at the middle end. Each side has a left-arm spinner, a finger-spinner and a leg-spinner in their bowling rows.
“It’s an interesting pitch,” Pakistan head coach Jason Gillespie said. “Since I’ve been here, there’s been fans that we’ve all seen. So it’s obviously very dry and there’s not a lot of grass. We’re probably hoping it favors the slower balls here.”
The series is tied 1-1. Pakistan are seeking their first series win since a 2-0 victory in Sri Lanka in July, and their first at home since beating South Africa in February 2021 by a similar scoreline.
Pakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Shan Masood (captain), 4 Kamran Ghulam, 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 7 Salman Agha, 8 Aamer Jamal, 9 Sajid Khan, 10 Noman Ali, 11 Zahid Mahmood
