Brendon McCullum, England’s coach, has dismissed suggestions that his team has been exposed on spinning pitches, despite Pakistan’s captain Shan Masood expressing a desire for another turner in the series decider in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan’s radical overhaul of their strategy in the second Test in Multan, which included the addition of three spinners and the use of the same pitch for a second week, paid off handsomely. Sajid Khan and Noman Ali shared 20 wickets to set up a series-levelling 152-run win.
However, McCullum believes that England’s defeat was not due to a lack of ability against spin. “We were outplayed in this game,” he said. “We’ll see what Rawalpindi’s got to offer and we’ll try and adapt accordingly.”
Masood, on the other hand, is hoping for a drier pitch in Rawalpindi that will assist the spinners. “I would like to see the ball turn in the third Test,” he said. “We want to get 20 wickets wherever we play, and we want to back that up with the bat.”
McCullum, however, predicted that the surface will be “the antithesis of the green seamer” for the decider. “I actually don’t mind,” he said. “We said right at the outset that we’ll try to adapt to whatever conditions we come up against.”
Despite England’s recent struggles on the subcontinent, McCullum is confident that his team has the ability to handle spinning conditions. “We’ve got a pretty good record here [in Pakistan],” he said. “Even that Test match we won in India, that was probably the most extreme of the spinning conditions. I don’t know: we’ll find out. I certainly don’t mind if it spins in the next one. I think we’ve got the artillery to be able to handle it.”
McCullum also defended England’s aggressive approach with the bat during the second Test. “We saw in this Test match that so many wickets fell to people trying to hang in there,” he said. “It was those that were prepared to be brave enough to sweep, reverse-sweep, put the opposition under pressure, who were actually able to score runs.”
