Pakistan lost the two-match Test series against Bangladesh© AFP
Pakistan cricket team captain Shan Masood was left extremely disappointed as his side slumped to a crushing 0-2 Test series loss against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. In the first Test, Pakistan’s decision to declare their first innings at 448/6 backfired completely as Bangladesh scored a mammoth 565 and then produced a brilliant bowling performance to win the game by 10 wickets. Things did not improve in the second Test as Bangladesh once again excelled with both bat and ball to clinch the match by six wickets. Following the match, Masood said that Pakistan have not learnt their lessons from the past losses and added that they have continuously failed to get over the line in Test matches.
“Extremely disappointed, we were excited for the home season. The story has been the same as Australia, we have not learnt our lessons,” Shan Masood said after the match.
“We thought we were playing good cricket in Australia but not doing the job, that’s something we need to work on. It has happened four times in my tenure that we have left the team back into the contest when we were dominating. 274 was a good score in the first innings, me and Saim [Ayub] could have got more runs like Litton. But we should have done better from having them at 26/6. That’s something we need to work on and work on quickly,” the Pakistan cricket team captain added.
Masood also lamented the fitness issues that have plagued the national side in the recent past but pointed out that they were many learnings that they can still take from the series loss.
“I think Test cricket demands something else in terms of fitness. We played four fast bowlers in the first Test and the reason was we thought the workload would be too much for three people to manage. And that was proved in this game when we lost a fast bowler in each innings. I think even in this Test match, having just 3 bowlers and 2 spinners was less, we could have done with another pacer.”
“It isn’t all doom and gloom, there are always learnings. We got Shaheen and Naseem back in the fold, Shaheen has played consistently for a year across formats and we can’t keep throwing him in the deep end. But we need to get fitter, neater and prepare better. It is going to be a long Test and domestic season and we need to be better prepared for England,” he concluded.
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