Selectors hope turning pitch will vindicate retention of three-pronged spin attack

Danyal Rasool23-Oct-2024Pakistan will field an unchanged starting eleven from the one that beat England by 152 runs in the second Test for the final game in Rawalpindi. The PCB announced the side one day after England confirmed a change in their bowling combination to match the triple-spin attack that proved successful for Pakistan in Multan.It is the first time in Shan Masood’s stint as captain that Pakistan have named an unchanged eleven. The decision is not a surprise, though there was a chance Pakistan may switch up their combination to replace Zahid Mahmood, who bowled just six ineffective overs in Multan, with a seamer. But an injury to Mir Hamza, their preferred choice, scuppered any chance of that happening.The decision is a leap of faith in the curators’ attempts to force the Rawalpindi surface to behave more like the one for the second Test in Multan. Historically, Pindi has never taken much spin, even late into Test matches; just two Tests ago on this surface, Pakistan went in with an all-pace attack against Bangladesh in August.Related

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Since the gamble in Multan paid off last week, though, preparations for a repeat have gone into overdrive. The curators were in Pindi before the second Test ended, with Aleem Dar and Aqib Javed, part of the selection committee, making the trip on the day the game ended.Over the weekend, industrial sized fans and wedding-style heaters were brought in, with windbreakers surrounding the surface. The heaters were gone by Monday, though the giant fans were working. Some footmarks are visible on the strip, notably outside the left-hander’s off-stump at the media end. Each side have a left-arm spinner, a finger spinner and a legspinner in their bowling ranks.”It’s an interesting pitch,” Jason Gillespie, Pakistan’s head coach, said. “Since I’ve been here, there’ve been fans on which we’ve all seen. So obviously it’s very dry and not a lot of grass on it. We probably expect it to favour the slower balls here.”The series is level at 1-1. Pakistan are looking for their first series win since a 2-0 victory in Sri Lanka in July, and a first at home since they beat South Africa in February 2021 by a similar scoreline.Pakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Shan Masood (capt), 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