New Delhi [India], October 22 : Pakistan's intentions for the pitch are clear now. Even before the second Test ended, Aleem Dar and Aqib Javed were on their way to Rawalpindi to prepare the pitch for the final Test.
At the post-match press conference in Multan, Shan Masood mentioned that he wanted the pitch to favour spin.
A couple of days later, large heaters, typically used for winter weddings in Pakistan, were placed around the pitch, with windbreakers for better efficiency. Industrial-sized fans were also set up.
England noticed these efforts, especially since they struggled against Pakistan's spinners on the turning track in Multan. According to ESPNcricinfo, Harry Brook mentioned in a press conference that he thought the Rawalpindi pitch had been "raked" to make it deteriorate faster, helping spinners come into play earlier. England then announced a playing XI with only one specialist seamer, Gus Atkinson, and included legspinner Rehan Ahmed.
Pakistan has had to take drastic steps to create a turning track in Rawalpindi because, unlike Multan, the pitch there doesn't naturally favour spin. They don't have a used pitch available this time, as they did when they reused the Multan pitch for the second Test. Masood said he had "never seen it take a turn" in Rawalpindi, and his vice-captain, Saud Shakeel, agreed but was hopeful this time would be different, as per ESPNcricinfo.
"If you look at the difference between Multan and Pindi, there's a difference of climate," Shakeel said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
"Multan is warmer than Pindi, Multan is warmer and more humid compared to Pindi. Pindi favours fast bowlers slightly and has more bounce, compared to Multan. The groundsman prepares according to that, and I think that's what causes the changes in the pitch," he added.
"But the way the pitch looks and the success we got in the second Test, we'll try for a similar kind of pitch that favours us and helps us win this game," he said.
"We should look at pitches for series to series and match to match. And we've come to realise this quite late," Shakeel noted, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
"If you want to prepare for SENA [series in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia], you can do it during practice and first-class cricket. If there's first-class cricket before South Africa, we could prepare those kinds of pitches there. But we should prepare pitches and conditions series-by-series, and according to the opposition," he remarked.
"Our comeback in the second game gave us a really good morale boost. A win is always very helpful in creating a positive atmosphere. We'll try to give spinners an advantage once more because they struggled with that in the second Test," Shakeel is keen to give opportunities to the spinners.
Pakistan didn't announce their playing XI on Tuesday, unlike England, preferring to wait and see how the pitch looked. Legspinner Zahid Mahmood was ineffective in Multan despite favourable conditions, bowling only six overs in the whole match, which might slightly increase the chances of them playing a specialist seamer.