When Pakistan was beaten by lowly ranked Zimbabwe at Harare in a test match last month, coach Dav Whatmore was sure his team would be competitive when up against top-ranked South Africa in the hot and humid conditions of the United Arab Emirates.
So the seven-wicket win against the Proteas in the first test this week did not surprise Whatmore as he prepared the team for the second test, starting on Wednesday.
Beside the conditions, Whatmore says a change to the opening partnership also played a crucial role as Pakistan’s strong first innings of 442 revolved around Khurram Manzoor’s 146 and debutante Shan Masood’s impressive 75.
Whatmore says, “conditions are different that’s pretty obvious and we’ve had a slight change of personnel in the eleven.”
