WATCH: Babar Azam turns his arm over on lifeless wicket in Rawalpindi
The historic and keenly anticipated Rawalpindi Test between Pakistan and Australia has turned out to be a damp squib because of a lifeless surface where neither spinners or pacers have got anything, giving boring proceedings for the fans. So much so that it required the popular figure of Babar Azam to roll his arms over for them to feel some sense of excitement and raise their voices.
On a super flat deck, Babar opted to give a rest to his specialist bowlers from an end and started bowling his gentle off-spinners near the close of Day 4 when the Australian first-innings was still going on. With two back to back Tests coming up in the series, the Pakistan captain took a sensible decision and began rolling the arm over himself against the Aussie tail.
It happened in the 137th over of the Australian innings, with the visitors 444/7 but still, 32 runs behind Pakistan’s own 476/4 declared. Babar Azam bowled to Australia’s two determined lower-order bats Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, giving away five runs off the over. As it turned out, it was the last over before stumps were called for Day 4.
WATCH: Mohammad Rizwan’s Brilliant Plan To Get Rid Of Steve Smith
Babar Azam was seen delivering his off-breaks against the Australian tail.
Babar Azam bowls to Pat Cummins in an amusing sight
In what was an interesting sight, Babar Azam bowled to his opposition counterpart Cummins, making it an instance where a batting captain was seen trying to dismiss a bowling skipper. Cummins, like Babar, is new to Test captaincy and is leading Australia on their first tour overseas for his tenure.
Babar bowling!
You saw it here first#BoysReadyHain l #PAKvAUS pic.twitter.com/e4bQVzmp9Q
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) March 7, 2022
This, of course, was not the first time Babar Azam was seen delivering his off-breaks in the Test whites. The Pakistan captain had bowled in the closing stages of the rain-marred Dhaka Test against Bangladesh late last year and taken a wicket towards his team’s critical win in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.
Meanwhile, the near-dead Rawalpindi track has fallen under scrutiny for the ICC as well as the players involved from both teams. It must be noted here that the match referee for the opening Test of the Benaud-Qadir Trophy is the same as he was for the Ashes 2017 Test played at MCG. Back then, Sri Lanka’s Ranjan Madugalle labelled the drop-in pitch used for the fourth Ashes Test as “poor” and handed the ground three demerit points.
It is expected, Madugalle will reach a similar conclusion for the Rawalpindi surface, too. As per the ICC regulations, the ground that faces five demerit points over a five-year period is suspended from hosting any form of international cricket for 12 months.
Experienced Australian batter Steve Smith didn’t mince words in assessing the track, calling it “benign” and “dead” with almost no pace and bounce for the seamers and no turn for the spinners either. The lack of bounce has meant that run-scoring has also been a huge task in a Test match, where both sides have recorded an RPO of less than 3 an over.