"Story has been the same as Australia, we have not learnt our lessons"- Pakistan skipper Shan Masood on 2024 home Test series defeat to BangladeshÂ
Pakistan skipper Shan Masood rued the missed opportunities and a lack of improvement from the Australian tour in their embarrassing 2-0 home Test series against Bangladesh. Masood's tenure as Test captain has gotten off to a dismal start since taking over at the end of last year.
Pakistan lost their first-ever Test match to Bangladesh in the series opener at Rawalpindi by ten wickets. They compounded their horror show with another pedestrian display in the second Test, resulting in a six-wicket win for Bangladesh.
After the second Test defeat to Bangladesh, a disappointed Masood said at the post-match presentation:
"Extremely disappointed, we were excited for the home season. The story has been the same as Australia, we have not learnt our lessons. 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."
Masood was unhappy with the set batters getting out (self-included) and letting Bangladesh off the hook from 26/6 in the first innings of the second Test.
"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," added Masood.
Pakistan suffered a 0-3 whitewash down under against Australia and continued their horrific winless run in home Tests with the latest Bangladesh debacle. The side have not won a Test match at home since the 2021 series against South Africa, losing six out of the ten Tests since with four draws.
"Test cricket demands something else in terms of fitness" - Shan Masood
Shan Masood lamented the fitness issues that plagued the side in both Bangladesh Tests.
With a focus on workload management, Pakistan went with a four-pronged pace attack in the opening Test, and the move backfired. The Bangladesh spinners picked up a truckload of spinners in the contest to help complete a 10-wicket win.
As a course correction, Pakistan went with a more balanced three pacers and one spinner lineup in the second Test.
"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," said Masood.
While Masood did not go into the specifics, he may have referred to pacers Mohammad Ali and Khurram Shahzad, who each bowled only seven overs in one of the two innings.
Meanwhile, the series defeat to Bangladesh has Pakistan second to bottom on the nine-team World Test Championship (WTC) table.