Spin in focus again as South Africa chase redemption in Rawalpindi

How about we scrap the toss and give the visiting team the choice of batting or fielding first? It's been tried in county cricket, with some success, and discussed by the ICC. In the wake of what happened in Lahore last week and looks likely to be the case again in Rawalpindi this week, the measure is worth considering at the highest level.

Ryan Rickelton disagreed. "I don't think that's a great idea," Rickelton told a press conference on Saturday. "It's the cornerstone of Test cricket; teams play to their strengths and their conditions."

Rickelton spoke three days after the end of the first Test at the Gaddafi in Lahore, where the pitch offered so much turn that the famously pace-heavy South Africans deployed a spinner as early as the sixth over of the match.

Pakistan won by 93 runs after lunch on the fourth day with their spinners claiming 16 wickets. There is little doubt that the pitch for the second Test, in Rawalpindi from Monday, has been designed to behave similarly.

"It's [Pakistan's] strength," Rickelton said. "That's what they need to do at home. And we've got to rise to the occasion and take them on in their backyard, and make sure that regardless of the outcome of the toss we have the capabilities to influence the game, even if we're batting second and fourth."

Visiting captains had the choice of what to do first in the county championship from 2016 to 2019. The average number of runs scored per wicket rose in the first year, compared to previous seasons, but dipped in the other three years. That happened not least because the championship was played at the beginning and end of the English summer - when producing sound surfaces is more difficult.

The ICC cricket committee mulled doing away with the toss in 2018, but came down on the side of Rickelton's "cornerstone" argument. The toss returned to the county championship for the 2020 season, and has remained part of the game. The problem of counties preparing pitches that unfairly favour their own teams hasn't gone away. But the ECB have decided that countering it is more effectively done with fines and points deductions.

A nation's ire isn't going to be raised by some wayward team in a corner of their country being docked points for a dodgy pitch. But do that to the national team and watch sparks fly. Hence, and paradoxically, Test pitches that attract unfavourable ratings are significantly worse than those that are damned at domestic level.

Of course, the joke will be on South Africa should they bat first in Rawalpindi and still lose. Whether they will be at the crease or in the field at the outset depends on the way the coin falls on Monday. But there is no uncertainty that the proud, passionate Pakistanis will be at them from the get-go - whether they are batting or bowling.

When: October 20 to 24, 2025; 10 am Local Time (7am SAT, 5am GMT, 10.30am IST)

Where: Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi

What to expect: Bright sunshine with the chance of a passing cloud late on the third day. That's if the game is still alive by then on what promises to be another viciously turning pitch.

Team news:

Pakistan

There's no point messing with this XI.

Possible XI:Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood (c), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan, Salman Agha, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali.

South Africa

Someone has to make way for Keshav Maharaj, who missed the first Test with a groin strain but has been confirmed as fit. Prenelan Subrayen looks the most likely candidate to go.

Possible XI:Aiden Markram (c), Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder, Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, Kyle Verreynne, Senuran Muthusamy, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada.

What they said:

"It's gone exactly to plan. Historically we've always played on such surfaces and produced fast bowlers who have taken wickets, so we've always wanted reverse swing to be in play." - Shan Masood after the Lahore Test, priming us to expect more of what we saw in Lahore in Rawalpindi.

"There's a lot of noise and excitement, but it's all in language that's foreign to me. I don't understand a thing, so it's quite easy just to brush past it. But they are nice guys. They chat to you in English, and it's, dare I say, comfortable as a relationship between player and player." - Ryan Rickelton on dealing with Pakistan's passion.