It had rained hard on Friday evening (21mm) and left the ground wet and soggy. And though there were no further rains on Saturday and Sunday, thick clouds on both days made the task of the ground staff, who had been working very hard, difficult to revamp the outfield for a timely start.
But the efforts of the groundsmen may go down the drain if the forecast of the Met office was bang on target. The weather men have forecast heavy downpour over the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad during the week.
``More rains and thunderstorm is expected at scattered places in Punjab,'' the forecast said, adding: ``Rawalpindi and Islamabad will have occasional rains in the next few days.''
Although, the team management has put off announcement of the playing squad till the time Saeed Anwar goes at the centre for the toss, Ali Naqvi, Mohammad Ramazan and Azhar Mahmood, are strongly tipped to make their Test debuts tomorrow.
Naqvi, after his 61 and 113 against South Africa in Karachi last week, has edged out more senior Salim Elahi while Azhar Mahmood's ability to bowl and bat gives him a nose ahead of Shahid Nazir and Mohammad Akram. Ramazan, also an opener, is expected to be sent to bat at No 3 spot if selected, in what appears to be a serious effort to bolster the middle-order.
The covers from the wicket were removed briefly today but there was enough time to see that it was a bald and hard strip. If the assessment goes right, it should help the seamers till the tea session of the second day before turning friendly to the spinners.
However, the Pakistan coach , Haroon Rasheed, said the final line up had not yet been finalised and he had left all his options open. ``We might play with three seamers and a spinner or two seamers and as many spinners.''
Whatever combination Haroon and Saeed may try, the fact remains that the Pakistan batting appears to be pretty ordinary in the absence of the experienced Salim Malik and Aamir Sohail.
Malik, who slammed a masterly double century at the same venue three years ago to save Pakistan against Australia, has been left out for no good reason while the selectors apparently have based their decision to leave out Sohail's after his first ball duck at Karachi last week.
``The batting may look vulnerable but it is talented. Our batting is a mixture of experience and youth. And to recall, we have never been afraid of injecting fresh blood,'' a confident Haroon Rasheed said.
The South African skipper Hansie Cronje was quick to say that his team had a very good chance of beating Pakistan. Minutes later, he showed what his intentions were when he announced a four-man pace attack to further compound Pakistan's problems.
Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Brett Schultz and Brian McMillan were named along with off-spinner Pat Symcox in the playing lineup.
``Even if the wicket is made placid, the quartet was capable of dismissing any opposition twice in a match,'' Cronje told reporters.
Experienced Andrew Hudson, a veteran of 32 Tests, however, was left out in a surprise move and Adam Bacher, who has played five Tests, was named as Gary Kirsten's opening partner. After that, there were no more surprises with Jacques Kallis, Hansie Cronje and Daryll Cullinan to follow.
``It is more or less the same side which played against Australia earlier this year. The only change is of Shaun Pollock who had to miss the Test because of injury,'' South African manager, S.K Reddy, said.
Haroon was not over-awed with the four-man pace attack announced by Cronje. ``Their strategy as I have observed is that they pitch short and make the batsmen hook or attempt a shot. What we have to do is to avoid falling in that trap. It needs concentration,'' he said.
``If pace attack is South Africa's strength, our force is the spin combination of Mushtaq Ahmad and Saqlain Mushtaq. The visitors' batting prowess was exposed by Ali Husain Rizvi at Karachi and I thonk Mushtaq Ahmad is a far better bowler than Rizvi,'' Haroon said.
But Cronje dismissed that his batsmen would be under pressureagainst the Pakistan spinners after they lost 13 wickets out of 15 to spinners in the warm-up match played in Karachi. ``We will not be repeating the shots that led to cheap dismissals of some of our batsmen there,'' he said.
Pakistan and South Africa are playing their first full three Test series. Before that the two had played just one Test in Johanessburg in 1994-95 which South Africa had won. For South Africans, the venue is not new. In fact, they have sweet memories of this ground when they beat UAE, Holland and England in the three 1996 World Cup matches here.
Similarly, Pakistan will be playing their fourth Test on this centre. They beat Zimbabwe by 52 runs and New Zealand by an innings and played a close draw with Australia.
TEAMS:
PAKISTAN (likely): Saeed Anwar (captain), Ali Naqvi, Mohammad Ramazan, Ijaz Ahmad, Inzamamul Haq, Mohammad Wasim, Moin Khan, Azhar Mahmood, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmad and Waqar Younis. Shahid Nazir 12th man.
SOUTH AFRICA: Hansie Cronje (captain), Gary Kirsten, Adam Bacher, Jacques Kallis, Daryll Cullinan, Brian McMillan, Dave Richardson, Shaun Pollock, Pat Symcox, Allan Donald, Brett Schultz. Jonty Rhodes 12th man.
UMPIRES: S Venkatraghavan (India) and Javed Akhtar (Pakistan)
MATCH REFEREE: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).