Pakistan captain Shan Masood on Sunday defended the decision to select four fast bowlers and no specialist bowler for the first Test, which the hosts lost to Bangladesh by 10 wickets. It was Pakistan’s first ever loss against Bangladesh in a Test. Masood, who failed with the bat in both innings, refused to admit that it was a bad decision to go in without a specialist bowler even after Shakib ul Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz shared seven wickets on the final day to bowl out Pakistan for just 146 runs. Masood also added that the team needed to add more runs to the board and said the team made a lot of mistakes which gave the opposition a lot of chances.
“We had anticipated the pitch to offer more assistance to the bowlers. Looking at the pitch, we expected it to do more,” he said in the post-match conference. “If we played with 3 fast bowlers, we would put them on the edge and the bowler would bowl 25-30 overs a day, which we wanted to avoid. We thought that with the weather, it might not even last the full 5 days. At the end of the day, we were wrong,” he said.
Shan also said the decision to declare the first innings at 448 for six was taken to push for a result. (Shahid Afridi criticises Shan Masood’s Pakistan after Bangladesh record historic Test match win)
“We wanted to win the match and that’s why we felt we had enough runs on the board to score. But the Bangladesh batsmen showed a lot of discipline and intent in their first innings. Mushfiq and Miraz batted really well,” he added.
“We felt like with 448 runs we might have a chance in the fourth inning.” (WATCH: Shakib Al Hasan loses his cool and throws the ball in anger towards Rizwan during the first Test between PAK and BAN)
“We could have made more runs, but there were also things with the ball and on the field that we could have done better to take the lead or keep them at par,” he said.
“We were mindful of the time and pushed for the winner to be declared. If you ask me now, we would have liked to make another 50-100 runs and that would have kept us in the game. But as a team we made a lot of mistakes over the 4 days and Bangladesh were deserved winners,” Masood said.
He added that Pakistan bowlers gave Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mushfiqur Rahim some chances when they were batting.
“Over the four days, I don’t think the pitch was docile. The pitch had enough for the backline players. But if you look at the way they played, they were very disciplined. In the end, we gave them some chances when Mehedy and Mushfiqur played,” he added.
Chasing just 30 runs, openers Zakir Hasan and Shadman Islam guided Bangladesh towards the target in 6.3 overs without losing a wicket. Pakistan, who started the day on 65 for 2, collapsed against the Bangladesh bowlers, losing their last eight wickets for just 81 runs. The Pakistan captain admitted that it was not the ideal start to the home season, where the team had to play a total of seven Tests at home and two away in South Africa.
“Now we just need to do everything right and try to level the series in the World Test Championship,” he said. Sunday’s defeat was Shan’s fourth in a row as captain after Pakistan’s 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Australia last winter. (With inputs from PTI)
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