DUBAI: Rival captains Brendon McCullum and Misbah-ul-Haq have agreed that winning the toss would be important to the outcome of the second Test between Pakistan and New Zealand starting here on Monday.

McCullum called heads and it came out tails in the toss in the first Test in Abu Dhabi which Pakistan won by 248 runs last week for a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

“It will be a pretty important toss, from what happened in the last game,” McCullum told reporters on Sunday. “We have made some improvements from our last match. I am confident my guys will step up and make some adjustments and put in a good performance.”

New Zealand’s trial by spin will continue as the Dubai International Cricket Stadium pitch is likely to take more turn, a challenge McCullum was ready for.

“I spoke to someone the other day who said it is going to be a juicy wicket and when I asked if it was juicy for seam he said it is juicy for spin. It does not surprise me. You have to expect this when you come to this part of the world,” he said.

Pakistan were effective in both spin and reverse swing with left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar taking five wickets, leg-spinner Yasir Shah four and seamer Rahat Ali six in the first Test.

“We were slightly deficient in our last game and reverse swing played quite a big part so we will try and do a little bit of tweaking in terms of how we go about playing reverse swing,” said the New Zealand captain.

“Their spinners bowled really well the other day and once again it is a matter of learning the lessons. The only way to learn these lessons is by actually going out and confronting them.”

McCullum said he hoped his team match their comeback of the last series against the West Indies in June this year.

“One of the things we pride ourselves is on making subtle adjustment when we are caught short. In the previous series for example in the West Indies we staged a comeback,” he said.

“The toss is very crucial in terms of allowing us a chance to win the game but it does not mean that is the end of it.”

Misbah said his team will be ready to bat second if they lose the toss.

“Sometimes it is an advantage but obviously it’s out of our control, but the good thing is that we are batting well in the second innings as well so when the wicket gets slower even in that time we are batting well so in terms of our batting we are confident and we need to be ready even if we lose the toss,” he added.

Pakistan will be without opener Ahmed Shehzad who suffered a minor skull fracture after being hit by a Corey Anderson bouncer in the first Test where he made his highest Test score of 176.

All-rounder Mohammad Hafeez is also doubtful after suffering a hamstring injury, two forced changes which concerns Misbah.

“At times it is a little bit of a concern but we have two openers who have done well in the past and they can fill in,” said Misbah.

Taufiq Umar is likely to replace Shehzad while Shan Masood can fill in for Hafeez.

New Zealand failed to cope with reverse swing that Rahat, who was named man-of-the-match in Abu Dhabi, and folded for 262 and 231 on a flat Sheikh Zayed Stadium pitch.

New Zealand’s best batsmen against spin, Kane Williamson (3 and 23) and Ross Taylor (0 and 8), were both all at sea against the Pakistani bowling.

Opener Tom Latham showed some grit against spin, scoring his maiden hundred in the first innings but that wasn’t enough to thwart Pakistan.

Misbah said he was still not eyeing a white-wash, like his team did against Australia with a 2-0 scoreline just a week before the New Zealand series.

“We should just take it one by one and it’s really important to just focus and do things right and if there are weak areas do that right,” said Misbah, who captained his 15th Pakistani win, a national record.

Teams (from):

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Taufiq Umar, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Rahat Ali, Imran Khan, Shan Masood, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Talha, Ehsan Adil.

New Zealand: Brendon McCullum (captain), Tom Latham, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Corey Anderson, Jimmy Neesham, B.J. Watling, Mark Craig, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Ish Sodhi, Luke Doug Bracewell, Neil Wagner, Ronchi, Hamish Rutherford.

Umpires: Paul Reiffel (Australia) and Ranmore Martinesz (Sri Lanka).

TV umpire: Rod Tucker (Australia).

Match referee: Andy Pycroft (Zimbabwe).

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2014