Pakistan has an impressive history of producing great fast bowlers. There was a time when Pakistan had the most lethal bowling attack with Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Shoaib Akhtar.

Even after the retirement of these greats, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul and Mohammad Amir helped Pakistan win a number of matches.

These fast bowlers helped Pakistan win many matches even when they had a fragile batting line, not only at home but abroad too.

Not only fast bowlers, Pakistan also produced many match winning spinners like Abdul Qadir, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq and Saeed Jamal.

After the retirement of off-spinner Saeed Ajmal in 2017, no spinner could cement his place in the national team. Saeed won many a Tests for his country. He was an essential part of the team for all three formats of the game for a long time.

Leg spinner Yasir Shah replaced him perfectly and played an important role in Pakistan's many Test wins but in the current Test squad there is no experienced and world class spinner who can be called a match winner.

During the past few years, many international players have left Test cricket to focus on ODIs and T20 Internationals and T20 leagues across the world as fans are more interested in the fastest format of the game.

And by preparing dead pitches like the one we saw in Pindi for the first Test against Australia, cricket authorities are doing a disservice to the Test format.

Australia last toured to Pakistan in 1998 when it won the Test series 1-0. The historic series between Pakistan and Australia has been poor as the fans witnessed a boring first Test on a lifeless track at the Pindi Cricket Stadium proved that a dead pitch means dead game and keep away fans from the stadium.

Cricket fans in Pakistan and all over the world were waiting to see a good contest between the two high profile teams, but the pitch turned out to be the flattest one that fans across the world have seen in decades.

Pakistan could have beaten Australia on a normal Rawalpindi wicket but instead of providing opportunity to bowlers, the PCB curator disappointed not only the players but the fans.

In first two Tests, Pakistan spinner Nauman Ali has taken seven wickets at an average of 35.42. Australia's experienced spinner Nathan Lyon conceded 142 runs for six wickets.

Pakistan spinner Sajid Khan has taken only 3 wickets in two Tests with a high average of 106.66.

Australian skipper and fast bowler Pat Cummins and Shaheen Shah Afridi have four wickets each with the average of 47.75 and 51 respectively. Mitchelle Starc conceded 187 runs for just 3 wickets.

With the first Test match witnessing both teams scoring a combined 1,175 runs across three innings, the pitch was declared "below average" by the ICC.

The ICC's Match Referee Ranjan Madugalle in a statement after the Test said that the Rawalpindi pitch did not provide sufficient contest between bat and ball and the character of the pitch hardly changed over the course of five days.

The pitch did not have a great deal of pace and bounce in it for the seamers nor assisted the spinners as the match progressed.

The Pindi Stadium has received one demerit point under the ICC pitch and outfield monitoring process after the Test finished in a tame draw. If the Pindi stadium receives five demerit points over a rolling five-year period, it loses the right to host international cricket for a period of 12 months and the ICC's report has been forwarded to the Pakistan Cricket Board.

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