When Pakistan decided spinner Abrar Ahmed to not play for Pakistan Shaheens and announced the team with 4 seamers for the first Test against Bangladesh, many questions were raised. Though Shah Masood felt that the pitch in Rawalpindi will come in the side of pace bowlers, it did not work the way he anticipated. Pakistan pace bowlers took a hard toll in the game and could only manage to get four wickets on third Day. Bangladesh posted 565 runs and defeated Pakistan by 10 wickets. After their defeat, Masood said that the absence of Aamer Jamal led to them playing with 4 seamers.
“There’s always room for a spinner, we lost Aamer Jamal who does well with both bat and ball. In Sydney, Sajid Khan played, going with four pacers didn’t work in this game. There have been different pitches produced, it’s a huge lesson for us on what to expect from our own conditions. The key is to consider the conditions and not make the same mistakes we have made here,” Masood said.
Masood admittd that the team made mistake but the pitch also played a major part. He also talked about them declaring before they could cross the mark of 500 runs.
“Never to make an excuse, it (the pitch) didn’t play the way we thought it would. Also the weather it had been around in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, it rained around 8-9 days before the first day of play. Firstly looking at the pitch, we expected it to do a bit more. With three pace bowlers, they were gonna be pushed to the limit,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we got it wrong. Hindsight, looking at the declaration, we wanted to push the game forward. Also with the ball and in the field, we could have done better to keep them at par. It’s a misconception, with the way it was going to take a lot. When you are playing for a draw, funny things can happen. A lot can happen under pressure,” he added.
