NEW DELHI: Pakistan captain Shan Masood stood by the team’s choice to include four fast bowlers and no specialized spinner in the starting lineup for the opening Test match against Bangladesh on Sunday. The home team suffered a devastating 10-wicket loss, marking their first ever defeat to Bangladesh in a Test match.
Despite his own poor performance with the bat in both innings, Masood refused to concede that the decision to play without a specialist spinner was a mistake.This was in spite of the fact that Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz combined to take seven wickets on the final day, dismissing Pakistan for a mere 146 runs.
“We had anticipated the pitch to offer more assistance to the seamers. Looking at the pitch, we expected it to do more,” he said, as quoted by PTI, at the post match conference.
“If we played 3 fast bowlers, we would be pushing them to the limit and the spinner would be bowling 25-30 overs a day, which we wanted to avoid.
“We thought that with the weather, it may not even last the full 5 days. At the end of the day, we got it wrong,” he said.
Shan stated that the choice to conclude their first innings at 448 runs for the loss of six wickets was made with the intention of pursuing a decisive outcome in the match.
“We wanted to go for a win in the match and thus felt we had enough runs on the board to declare. But the Bangladesh batters showed a lot of discipline and intent in their first innings. Mushfiq and Miraz batted really well,” he added.
“We felt that with 448 runs we could get a crack at them in the fourth innings.”
“We could have done with more runs but there were also things with the ball and in the field that we could’ve done better to either take a lead or keep them at par,” he said.
Chasing a modest target of 30 runs, openers Zakir Hasan and Shadman Islam led Bangladesh to victory in just 6.3 overs without losing a wicket. Pakistan, resuming the day at 65 for 2, struggled against Bangladesh’s spinners and collapsed, losing their last eight wickets for only 81 runs.
The Pakistan captain acknowledged that this was not the best way to kick off the home season, which includes seven home Tests and two away matches in South Africa.
“We just have to now get everything right and try to level the series in the world test championship,” he said.
Sunday’s defeat was Shan’s fourth straight defeat as captain after Pakistan’s 0-3 whitewash at the hands of Australia last winter.
Despite his own poor performance with the bat in both innings, Masood refused to concede that the decision to play without a specialist spinner was a mistake.This was in spite of the fact that Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz combined to take seven wickets on the final day, dismissing Pakistan for a mere 146 runs.
“We had anticipated the pitch to offer more assistance to the seamers. Looking at the pitch, we expected it to do more,” he said, as quoted by PTI, at the post match conference.
“If we played 3 fast bowlers, we would be pushing them to the limit and the spinner would be bowling 25-30 overs a day, which we wanted to avoid.
“We thought that with the weather, it may not even last the full 5 days. At the end of the day, we got it wrong,” he said.
Shan stated that the choice to conclude their first innings at 448 runs for the loss of six wickets was made with the intention of pursuing a decisive outcome in the match.
“We wanted to go for a win in the match and thus felt we had enough runs on the board to declare. But the Bangladesh batters showed a lot of discipline and intent in their first innings. Mushfiq and Miraz batted really well,” he added.
“We felt that with 448 runs we could get a crack at them in the fourth innings.”
“We could have done with more runs but there were also things with the ball and in the field that we could’ve done better to either take a lead or keep them at par,” he said.
Chasing a modest target of 30 runs, openers Zakir Hasan and Shadman Islam led Bangladesh to victory in just 6.3 overs without losing a wicket. Pakistan, resuming the day at 65 for 2, struggled against Bangladesh’s spinners and collapsed, losing their last eight wickets for only 81 runs.
The Pakistan captain acknowledged that this was not the best way to kick off the home season, which includes seven home Tests and two away matches in South Africa.
“We just have to now get everything right and try to level the series in the world test championship,” he said.
Sunday’s defeat was Shan’s fourth straight defeat as captain after Pakistan’s 0-3 whitewash at the hands of Australia last winter.
