It would be correct to say that Pakistan cricket is going through a bad phase. They lost the Asia Cup as well as the 20-20 World Cup final in one year along with losing their chairman as well.
With the new Chairman Najam Sethi replacing Ramiz Raja, the entirety of the Pakistan Cricket Board has been sent into disarray. Every new day brings a new controversy between the current and former chairman who are hell-bent on proving that one is better than the other.
Amidst all this, however, Pakistan Cricket Team is also playing a cricket match. First, they played against England at home after a gap of 17 years and now they are locking horns with New Zealand in a 2-match Test series.
The Ben Stokes England side whitewashed the Babar Azam-led side by 3-0 in the Test series. Although Pakistan faced a lot of criticism for the loss they also got a good amount of backlash for making a batting-friendly pitch against England.
The pitch at Rawalpindi for the first Test match was so easy to bat on that England were able to make an excess of 500 runs on the first day itself. The board corrected their mistake and the later pitches were not as batting-friendly but the Men in Green could not subvert loss even then.
Against New Zealand, they began with a similar batting pitch in the first Test. The game was drawn as it could not reach conclusion. The second Test match starts on 2nd January and it looks like the pitch is as flat as they come. The New Zealand fast bowler Mitchell McClenaghan has said, “What an absolute road. Batters dream.”
Soon fans also mirrored McCleanaghan’s take on the pitch and came up with many memes in reply. The pitch turned out to be a batting pitch as New Zealand ended the day at 309/6 with the openers, Tom Latham (71) and Devon Conway (122) again making huge totals.
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
They want Babar to score. That's it. Winning the test is of least importance
— Thomas Jones (@ThomasJ89724975) January 2, 2023
Test cricket born in England & died in Pakistan Highway ?
— Shailesh ? (@shailesh__9) January 2, 2023
Pakistan thought that they will win the toss & Babar Azam will score a century & become no1 test batsman but god had different plans
— Sarcastic Pakistani (@sarcasticpak2) January 2, 2023
— SudarshaN ?? (@ImSudarshan67) January 2, 2023
Pitches in Pakistan are made for Babar Azam to score runs rather than Pakistan team winning any matches, No doubt Babar is a good Batsman but atleast challenge him to test his abilities and care about your team winning
— Sachcha Insaan (@papajiasliwale) January 2, 2023
Early planning by PCB for award of test cricketer the year for Babar . Ek toh home condition aur uspe bhi highway ?
— animesh (@animesh7370) January 2, 2023
Pak Bowlers now ?? pic.twitter.com/2kqrt93s0o
— DewAzam (@mewari_ravi) January 2, 2023
If player want To improve Stats Hababi come to Pakistan ? highway pitch pic.twitter.com/UWIcUO3emW
— vinod choudhary (@Jayveeru215) January 2, 2023
But to be fair to Pakistan they have not lost any test match this year!
— Sachit Bhatia (@sachitbhatia) January 2, 2023
Zimbu ka 100 banaake world ka attention v to lena he
— Kartik (@Kartik50184463) January 2, 2023
