It’s October 2024, and industrial fans are blowing hot air onto one of the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium surfaces. The aim, if not evident by now, is to suck all the moisture out of the surface and bake a cracked deck that would help spin the ball by miles. The fans did their job, so did Pakistan’s spinners. Sajid Khan and Noman Ali collectively grabbed all twenty wickets in the Test against England, without so much as an ounce of help from pacers.
Home advantage stays home
Pakistan had a revolutionary epiphany during that series: they could tweak the home conditions to their advantage. It fetched them the results they needed as they defeated England in a series for the first time since 2015 and levelled the next two home series against West Indies and South Africa. All was going well. But the happily ever after ended quite terribly for them.
They had the most rude awakening the very next time they stepped out to play an away Test series. Bangladesh didn’t spare them, locking in another 2-0 defeat and reminding Pakistan that the rot under the surface couldn’t possibly be contained with methods as flimsy as relying entirely on using home advantage. The problem with home advantage, as Pakistan found out, is that it only works at home.
Pakistan’s love for spin tracks
Pakistan implemented a similar ploy ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup. They prepared rank turners against Australia in a three-match T20I series, swept them 3-0, and headed into the tournament with genuine optimism. The pitches they had practised on, they reasoned, were decent preparation for Sri Lankan conditions.
But contrary to their hopes and true to their history, Pakistan had a torrid World Cup campaign, where Sri Lanka were the only side they defeated out of all the full-member nations. And even that win was virtually a loss as they failed to halt the side to get the desired Net Run Rate for semi-final qualification.
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The surface in the first ODI against Australia was once again spin-friendly. Arafat Minhas, talented as he is, was the direct beneficiary, claiming a five-for on a pitch that made life uncomfortable for any batter trying to play straight. Eventually, Pakistan resoundingly defeated Australia in the first game, and with the way their bowlers performed, the hosts’ chances look decent for the next games.
Old techniques reap old results
Another win could get Pakistan a second consecutive ODI series win against Australia for the first time in their history. But how much would that be worth? And how likely is it to end any differently than it did for Pakistan’s Test side in Bangladesh? Or their T20I side in Sri Lanka?
White-ball head coach Mike Hesson insists this is all deliberate, that the surfaces are being prepared with one eye on the ODI World Cup, where venues in Zimbabwe and Namibia are expected to offer turn. He also revealed Pakistan will be experimenting on a variety of conditions before the World Cup, which would be backed with significant research.
And that’s all well, good job even. But Hesson and Pakistan need to realize there is a line between mimicking conditions to practice and exploiting them to the point they do half the job. The latter is counterproductive and inflates the good part unrealistically. This year alone Pakistan have experienced that twice across two different formats. They’d be better off without poking the third to see if it behaves any different.
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