Pakistan’s Test captain, Shan Masood, has defended his team’s decision to field four fast bowlers and no specialist spinner in their opening Test match against Bangladesh, despite suffering a humiliating 10-wicket defeat.
Masood’s decision raised eyebrows, especially after Bangladesh’s spinners, Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, combined to take seven wickets on the final day, dismissing Pakistan for a paltry 146 runs. However, Masood insisted that the pitch was expected to offer more assistance to the seamers.
“We had anticipated the pitch to offer more assistance to the seamers. Looking at the pitch, we expected it to do more,” Masood said 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.”
Masood also explained that the decision to declare their first innings at 448 for six 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.”
However, Pakistan’s bowlers failed to make any inroads into Bangladesh’s batting lineup, and the visitors chased down the modest target of 30 runs without losing a wicket.
Masood acknowledged that the defeat was a disappointing start to Pakistan’s 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.
