Watch: "Wanted flat pitches" — Babar Azam blamed for Pakistan's fast-bowling decline after ENG vs PAK 1st Test collapse

Pakistan’s rich history of fast-bowling terror has slowly started to fade as the pundits have pointed fingers at the pitch preparation, with Babar Azam’s captaincy being blamed the most for the situation during the opening Test of the two-match series against England at Leeds in Headingley. 

Shan Masood’s side went down by a 2-0 margin in the away Test series against Bangladesh, whose fast bowlers hit the high-130s and mid-140s to trouble the Pakistan batters. Meanwhile, their bowlers largely operated in the mid-120s and early 130s.

Pundits slam Babar Azam's captaincy era for prioritising flat pitches over pace-friendly tracks

The former Pakistan player, Urooj Mumtaz, identified the root cause as he reckoned that the traditional pace threat had disappeared slowly. She also brought everyone’s focus to the domestic pitch conditions.

Watch Babar Azam getting blamed here- 

“So, there's obviously a problem with the pitches that we prepare, back home. One of the examples of that was England touring Pakistan both times around. Now, I think there's also a lot of haze in understanding where Pakistan's strength lies now, or has been in the last 5 years.” Mumtaz expressed on Sky Sports.

“For me, it is very hard to believe to say that Pakistan's quick bowling is not the strength. It has always been the strength. We've gone so far away from it because our batters, um, especially when Babar was captain, wanted flatter tracks, wanted the batsmen sort of dominated the way things ran more.” The former Pakistan star added. 

The former player also elaborated that the batting-friendly surfaces contributed to the decline under Babar’s leadership. She touched on Shaheen Afridi’s situation and claimed that Ubaid Shah had been their fastest bowler currently.

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“Even in first-class cricket, grass was taken off. So, you were almost putting the fast bowlers up against the wall, giving them zero assistance in first-class cricket, and providing a lot of batters to score runs without any test, really. And that's where I feel they've just fallen off the boil.” Mumtaz reckoned.

“And that just, I just feel that the quick bowlers have been sort of put in a box and not been given the due respect. So, they don't want to bowl fast anymore. And that's why you see our bowling attack right now; the quickest is Ubaid Shah, who can hit about 140 clicks.” She highlighted.

Pakistan bundled out for 171 at Headingley as England's pacers expose a fragile batting line-up

On the opening day’s play, Pakistan were bundled out for 171 runs in their first innings, with Abdullah Shafique being the only half-centurion of the line-up when he smashed 61 runs off eight boundaries at a strike rate of 58.65. They were 117/3 and lost their last seven wickets for just 54 runs.

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Both Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue picked up a five-wicket haul each. The former returned with figures of 5/51 while Tongue ended with 5/46 in 9.1 overs. England ended the first play’s play with 112/ as Mohammad Abbas and Mohammad Ali picked up one wicket each.

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