Simon Doull: “You are picking a guy like Mir Hamza who has a terrific first-class record. You pick guys who perform well at that level, but they come and bowl on this road”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Cricket commentator Simon Doull said Pakistan left-arm fast bowler Mir Hamza has a terrific first-class record, but he was not given any assistance by the pitches prepared for the New Zealand Test series.
Hamza was recalled for the two-Test series from December 2022 to January 2023, which marked his comeback to the longest format after he made debut in October 2018.
However, with the pitches being extremely flat and offering little assistance to the bowlers, he ended up finishing with one wicket at an average of 197.
This is vastly different in comparison to his first-class statistics as he has claimed 377 wickets in 94 matches at an average of 22.23.
Doull called on the higher ups in Pakistan cricket to stop getting involved in how the wickets are prepared as it is hurting their players.
“The people above, the hierarchy, have just got to leave their noses out of it,” he was quoted as saying by Cricwick. “It offers nothing. There is no grass on it. There is no seam movement, and there is no carry.
“You are picking a guy like Mir Hamza who has a terrific first-class record. You pick guys who perform well at that level, but they come and bowl on this road.
“You can’t expect them to do the same job that they’re doing at the first-class level if you’re going to produce these types of surfaces.”