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'What an absolute road': NZ pacer slams Karachi pitch, Twitter claims 'It's made for Babar Azam's personal milestones'
The Karachi pitch has come under the scanner once again after New Zealand openers hardly faced any trouble scoring runs against Pakistan on Day 1 of the second Test.
The Pakistan Cricket team and PCB have come under heavy scrutiny for the quality of pitches that have been produced for the team's home Test matches. From hosting Australia to now New Zealand, the narrative seems to have not changed since March of last year. Series after series, the pitches on which the games are played lack spice and the excitement needed to make Test cricket interesting. The batters have a ball of a time and bowlers struggle for wickets and once again, something similar was on offer in Karachi's National Stadium, hosting the second Test between New Zealand and Pakistan starting today.
After winning the toss and opting to bat first, New Zealand openers Tom Latham and Devon Conway stitched a solid partnership of 134 runs in 35.1 overs, with both batters scoring half-centuries. Latham and Conway scored at a rate of almost 4 runs an over making pacers Mir Hamza, Naseem Shah and Hasan Ali look ineffective. Looking at the ease at which the New Zealand openers scored runs, BlackCaps pacer Mitchell McClenaghan took to Twitter to express his displeasure with the pitch, comparing it to a road. "What an absolute road. Batters dream," he tweeted.
Reacting to McClenaghan's tweet, fans on Twitter agreed with the left-arm quick's assessment, with some believing that such non-sporty surfaces are made to help Pakistan's batters achieve personal feats and milestones.
Last year, the Rawalpindi pitch, which hosted the first Test between Pakistan and Australia, was handed a 'below average' rating by the ICC and also given one demerit point during Ramiz Raja's tenure as PCB chief. Eight months later, it received another 'below average' rating, this time for the first Test between Pakistan and England. Still, nothing seems to have changed. Fans have been clamouring for exciting and sporty pitches but it seems as of their requests are falling on deaf ears.
