Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi in his “Najam Sethi Show” on 24NewsHD TV channel criticised the current PCB Chairman and the captain of the team for their loss in the first Test against England in Rawalpindi.
Sethi said that he did not see the earlier days' innings as he knew they were dead but he saw today’s innings. He said he has differences with the administration and the management behind the pitch and is very disappointed by them. The opponent team’s score above 500 was caused by the pitch. The pitches were green during the recent Quaid-e-Azam trophy and the runs scored on them were hardly 250 or 275 on average. The green ones were the best and very competitive ones for our bowlers. But when it came to the Test matches, it felt like they were deliberately shaved as if a draw was intended. The decision made by the PCB was just to not lose is without any vision of winning.
Pakistan cricket team has the best pace attack but the board did not confide in them. They shaved the pitches, made them dead and now are saying that all the pitches in Pakistan are dead and new drop-in pitches worth billions should be brought in and tournaments be played on them.
"Ramiz Raja can be given the benefit of the doubt as he claimed that he did not have any knowledge of the types of pitches made, but what about Captain Babar Azam’s performance? One of the major reasons for today’s loss was the difference in captaincy. English team captain Ben Stokes aced at making decisions and giving tactful orders. He bravely took a calculated risk and directed his team to implement short-pitch bowling so that minimum runs get scored and the most wickets are taken. Overall it was a “disgusting” performance," stated Najam Sethi.
He said that frustration and disappointment took over when Babar was bowled out. Afterwards, Rizwan had to come who is an attacking player. He played his natural game which was not at all needed at that time. When he was bowled out, all the shutters went on closing on the Pakistani team. The English team demonstrated maturity and excellent captaincy. The bowlers implemented the techniques their captain told them and as their captain told them. They did not let Pakistani batsmen make any runs and took wickets by putting them under pressure so they would make mistakes.