Bowlers’ graveyards: Pakistan’s placid pitches under fresh fire

MULTAN: Australia pace legend Dennis Lillee denounced a pitch in Pakistan as a “graveyard for bowlers” in 1980, but more than 40 years later little has changed.

Lillee vented his anger after toiling for 21 wicketless overs in Faisalabad in a turgid draw. All 11 Australian players, even wicketkeeper Rod Marsh, had a turn bowling in Pakistan´s second innings of 382-2 in reply to Australia´s 617 all out as the game petered out into near farce.

Last week, on a wicket described as “a road” by former captain Michael Vaughan, England rewrote the record books as they piled up 823-7 declared in reply to Pakistan´s 556 in the first Test in Multan.

The total was the fourth highest single innings in Test history. Harry Brook plundered 317 at almost a run a ball and Joe Root became England´s highest Test run scorer during his career-best 262.

Their stand of 454 for the fourth wicket was an England record, the fourth highest in history and the most by any pair playing overseas. Despite the lifeless pitch, England´s bowlers pulled off an innings and 47 run victory after Pakistan crumbled to 220 all out in their second innings.

It gave Pakistan an unwanted record -- the first team to score 500 or more and lose a Test by an innings. England batting great Kevin Pietersen said on X that the lack of help for bowlers in Multan, where the second Test begins on Tuesday, was “helping destroy Test cricket.”

It is a “perennial problem,” former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram told AFP. “For years it has been the same old story. Very rarely we used to get green and lively pitches in the 1990s and had to bowl long spell for wickets.”

Rashid Latif, a former Pakistan captain who has studied pitch preparation, said there was no need for the pitches to be curated so overwhelmingly in the batsmen´s favour. “We can prepare good pitches but our mindset is negative,” Latif told AFP.

“There was good grass on the Multan pitch but it was shaved off, I don´t know on whose wishes.” Former spinner and ex-selector Tauseef Ahmed, a member of Pakistan team who played in the infamous 1980 Faisalabad Test, said: “Our batters want a flat pitch to score runs.

“Even in domestic matches we have such pitches so that players score big and get prominence.” The last two years has seen Pakistan pitches get even more docile. Each Test wicket there now costs an average of 42.13 runs, the highest anywhere in the world. Pitch preparation is a science, with experts saying the ideal soil mix is around 60 per cent clay with less sand, such as that found in Australia.