Yesterday, Pakistan topped the ICC Test Team Rankings for the first time after wet ground at the Queen Park Oval, Port of Spain, denied India the opportunity to defend the top spot which it had reclaimed from Australia on 17 August.
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He made it two from two in home series with 18 wickets in two Tests against New Zealand less than 12 months later and then added a further 29 wickets, and another Player-of-the-Series award, in India’s 4-0 thrashing of Australia in early 2013.
The team – who have replaced India at the top – have not played a Test at house in six years for security reasons.
Former West Indies captain Viv Richards was among those critical of the organisers. We had come here looking to improve in a few areas and we have done that.
“We faltered a bit in this series”.
“We needed improvement here in the lower order”.
Talking to a private Pakistani TV channel in Rose Bowl, Southampton, Intikhab Alam said that being number one in ICC Test Ranking is a great achievement, especially considering the conditions Pakistan cricket has been in for the past eight years. But, though Viral Kohli’s team won the series 2-0.
“The other teams have played more games than us and we need to play as many games to be able to compare after the whole season is done”. So we wanted to try this combination out, though the game didn’t happen here.
Pakistan supplanted arch-rival India to become the world’s No. 1 Test side on Monday after India’s final Test against the West Indies ended in a rain-hit draw at Port of Spain.
Pointing out the inequalities in the system, Miandad suggested that no country should be declared top ranked unless they have played against each and every country.
“We certainly ensure they are equipped with the necessary tools”.
The last three days of the Test also had abundant sunshine, but the outfield did not dry despite various efforts of the ground staff at Queen’s Park Oval, which did not have a super-sopper at its disposal.
Since being established as one of the principal venues for global cricket in the Caribbean in 1930, no Test match or other senior worldwide fixture had ever been scheduled at the ground after the month of June until this series.
Previous to this embarrassment, two matches against England suffered from similarly weird experiences.
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In 1998, the first Test of the series at Sabina Park in Jamaica lasted less than an hour before the umpires determined that the pitch was too risky for the English batsmen to cope with genuine fast bowling. But the match dismisses due to rain.
