Shan Masood, the captain of Pakistan, has urged patience as he supports his team’s decision to play an aggressive style of cricket against the best Test teams. In the first Test match against Australia, Pakistan was dominated from the start and lost by a final score of 360 runs. Masood emphasized in his remarks prior to the Boxing Day Test that change does not happen quickly.
“One Test is never a fair assessment,” declared the captain-elect. “You must give it time. It will take a little longer. A team that has been playing Test cricket for some time already is part of your roster. You need to consider the players available for red-ball cricket as well as the domestic framework. There are many requirements before you can sort of impose that style of play.
“Players must commit to the game. We aim to provide players as many opportunities as possible to adopt our preferred style of play. We have stated publicly that we would like to play a more visually appealing style of Test cricket. It’s what we did in Sri Lanka. We also obtained some outcomes. Now, the task is to accomplish it against the top cricket teams in the world.”
Masood brought up the fact that Australia routinely scored at a rate of more than four runs per over, meaning that even though Pakistan occasionally struck, a massive total was always likely. The visitors were unable to score at three an over in their reply, either. “We don’t want to force people to play a certain way but we’ve outlined a few things that we want to do better,” he said. “Even though we took 10 wickets, Australia scored at a rate of 4.5 runs per over when they did score.” That is how they set us back. After that, they bowled, making sure we didn’t score more than three runs per over. We measured 2.6–2.7. The margins are as follows. The Test match was lost there.
“The game was settled in those (first two) days, but on Day 4, when we saw the pitch, that’s when the toss was made. We need to play a positive style of cricket and get off to a fast start if we are going to compete against Australia. However, you will need to give the boys some time. It takes time for it to happen. You must watch how players interact with one another. You must first persuade them to play the way you see fit, then give them a fair shot while attempting to establish the tone yourself. I felt like I was off to a good start in Perth, but I was unable to build on it. left at the incorrect time. It is these that you wish to accomplish. But show the players some patience. We shouldn’t conclude that everything is broken or that there is no Pakistani way of doing things just because one game hasn’t gone our way. We ought to give our group time to get established.”
Masood got off to a fast start in the first innings, hitting five boundaries, setting an example for others to follow. However, he was unable to build on that start and left the game at thirty as Pakistan gave up a sizable lead in the first innings. In response to a question concerning his strategy, he stated, “We have to be flexible to various circumstances.” “The openers deserve a great deal of recognition as well. when you are out for 110 overs and you give up 450 runs in the first innings while having heavy legs. Over there, they made the proper decision. They successfully countered the new ball and overcame some excellent spells from elite bowlers. In that case, that’s what you had to do.
“The ball was a little bit older and it was a little bit easier to score runs when I left. You want to choose your battles and you need to choose your moments. That is my desired outcome for the team. Be able to adjust to various circumstances. Be upbeat. As a bowling unit, we’ll allow the opposing team to score at 4.5 without giving them big margins, and we won’t pick up those wickets at an earlier period or in 110 overs. Furthermore, as a batting team, our objective is to close the score difference and achieve a score of 350, 360, or comparable if we are batting for 100 overs. From a personal perspective, it’s something I’ve been enjoying for the past few years. In domestic cricket, my red-ball performance has increased when I began to bat more confidently. Our objective as a batting unit is to ensure that we score more runs when we bat for 100 overs.”
The 34-year-old also gave an explanation for why the upcoming Test will see him return to his position as wicketkeeper instead of experienced Sarfaraz Ahmed.
When Masood selected Sarfaraz for the opening Test, he stated, “We wanted to set a precedent where we wanted to reward people who have been playing red-ball consistently in domestic cricket over the past few years.”
“You saw that even though a lot of people thought it was hazardous to put two debutants out there, Khurram Shahzad and Aamer Jamal were chosen. Their first trip in Australia was really decent, so we have to give them credit for handling themselves effectively, in my opinion. The rationale of playing Sarfaraz remained mostly same. People like to focus on statistics, and Rizwan has excellent SENA averages. First off, there isn’t any rivalry between the two. They play a similar role in the team. Any rivalry they have is constructive rivalry. We are aware of Rizwan’s past actions, but Sarfaraz was given the advantage because, during his previous tour here in 2016, he averaged 56.50. Yes, it has been a while, but in the last several years, he has also regularly played red ball in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy.
“After playing a lot of white ball cricket at the World Cup, Rizwan just returned. In red-ball cricket, too, he had a void after Sarfaraz replaced him for the New Zealand series. Rizwan hadn’t played much red-ball cricket, and Sarfaraz had put on an incredible show there. So there was a process involved. He has played red-ball cricket there. We were able to get a player like Rizwan in shape because Karachi had a great season and was named the tournament’s MVP. Though it’s not feasible, I would want for both to play if I had my wish. We now believe Rizwan is prepared, and we can allow Saifi to take a brief break to heal before he returns.”