Pakistan captain Shan Masood’s side were given a hammering blow to their World Test Championship (WTC) hopes by Bangladesh. The Tigers won the 2-match Test series with a whitewash as the Men in Green suffered one of their most disappointing defeats ever. In both the Test matches, there was a point when the hosts were clearly controlling the rhythm of the game, however they allowed the opposition to get back into the contest with their mistakes.
In the first Test, Pakistan’s decision to declare their first innings at 448/6 backfired as Bangladesh amassed 565 before bowling their hosts out cheaply the second time around to power to a 10-wicket win. In the second Test, the visitors were reeling at 26/6 in their first innings but recovered superbly through a 165-run seventh-wicket stand between Litton Das and Mehidy Hasan Miraz to turn the tables on Pakistan.
“Extremely disappointed, we were excited for the home season. The story has been the same as Australia, we have not learnt our lessons,” Masood said.
“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,” Masood added.
Masood also opened up on the fitness concerns with his team. Pakistan played a 4-man pace attack in the opening Test that left no room for a spinner in the XI. Their attempts to correct this mistake in the second Test were shortchanged by one of the 3 selected fast bowlers bowling less, presumably because of fitness issues.
“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,” Masood said.
The Pakistan skipper also called for a fitter bowling unit before the next Test assignment, at home against England.
“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,” Masood concluded.
