Pakistan Cricket Board has hired the services of Toby Lumsden to oversee Lahore’s pitch creation ahead of the third test between Pakistan and Australia.
The ex-MCG and ICC academy curator will supervise the pitch construction for a period of 10 days. He will also be tasked with guiding Pakistan-based curators about making better playing tracks.
The conditions of the playing tracks in the recent Pakistan, Australia series has taken the sheen off a momentous occasion. Rawalpindi’s wicket was specially dull which resulted in a demerit point from ICC.
The condition in the ongoing Karachi Test did not improve much either . A track which was meant to assist the spinners did yield much turn as Australia put up 556 in the first innings before using reverse swing on offer to dismiss Pakistan instead of the track.
The plan, however, seems to go beyond just Lahore’s pitch as PCB’s chairman Ramiz Raja has long held the vision of introducing drop-in pitches in Pakistan to replicate the conditions of bouncier tracks in Australia in a bid to help players get accustomed to the conditions they are likely to come across over the world.
