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.

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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.”