After Day 3 of the match, Pakistan’s assistant coach Azhar Mahmood explained why they chose to leave out Abrar Ahmed and field four seamers. He noted that the seamers struggled with the second new ball but mentioned that the pitch behaved differently than they had expected.
Azhar defends decision to play 4 seamers
“The reason we didn’t play a spinner was there was grass on the pitch and we thought it would favour the seamers. We were hoping for that. But the three hours the pitch was sunned before the game started on the first day may have made a difference. The wicket dried out; we didn’t think it would dry out so quickly, and that made it play differently,” Mahmood said.
“We were not disciplined enough in the last 12 overs. If you assess the overall day, we were great in 80 overs. With the second new ball, we strayed from the plan. Then they attacked. We allowed them to play that type of cricket. But you can also score runs easier off the new ball, and they utilised that to great effect,” he added.
After Day 3’s play. Pakistan assistant coach Azhar Mahmood stood by the choice to omit Abrar Ahmed and opt for four seamers. Although he criticized the seamers’ performance with the second new ball, he noted that the pitch behaved differently than they had anticipated.
