Islamabad, Oct 25: England Wicket-Keeper Warns of Rawalpindi Pitch
After 13 wickets were lost on a wild opening day of the last Test, England batsman Jamie Smith has cautioned his teammates that the highly anticipated Rawalpindi wicket will only get worse.
“I can only see it getting worse from here” replied Jamie when asked about the playing conditions which suited the home team’s spinners once again. The wicket-keeper batter believes the decisive third Test, and the series itself will come down to “small margins”.
The 24-year-old scored 89 of his team’s 276 runs with six sixes and five fours, making him the only Englishman to successfully withstand Pakistan’s spin attack. However, he acknowledged that “it was more luck than judgment with some of those.” Nevertheless, he helped his team get a par-score by pulling them out of terrible circumstances at 98 for five and 118 for six.
Smith was pleased with his side’s progress, “The low bounce is only going to make it harder. I can’t see it bouncing more—it’s only going to get lower. When you know, the pitch is going to deteriorate, every first innings run becomes vital”. He used Duckett’s dismissal to hammer home his point about the ball keeping low and warned his teammates of a repeat in the second innings.
England may view Jamie Smith’s knock as the game-changing moment as the Rawalpindi wicket is predicted to worsen over the next few days of the last Test.
