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Iqbal stadium, Faisalabad, is the venue for second test match between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan Cricket Board management and ground curators claimed to make a sporting wicket in Faisalabad to give benefit to seamers, after getting no result from the dead wicket of lahore. However the players were of opinion that it is a batting track with some turn in last two days.

Pakistan made couple of changes in the team, bringing Abdul Razzak and Muhammad Asif inplace of Rana Naveed and out-of-form Muhammad sami. Indian team also made couple of changes bringing debutant RP Singh and Zaheer Khan inplace of Ajeet Agarkar and Saurav Ganguly.

From Cricket24X7:

Much like its domestic team, the city too is full of energy. Outside of cricket, Faisalabad is a prominent for its many industries; chemicals, synthetics, food products, and most famously, textiles. No place in Pakistan produces more cotton then does Faisalabad, fetching it the nickname ‘Manchester of Pakistan’ from geologists, after Manchester in the UK, which is renowned for its enormous cotton industry.

Agha Zahid, the head PCB curator, who has been supervising the preparation of this pitch for the last fortnight, told reporters yesterday that he had his “fingers crossed”. So has the entire nation, Zahid. For the sake of Cricket alone the pitch ought to be an improvement on the last one. Here’s hoping it will be a great test.

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