Pak vs Ban – Shan Masood admits Pakistan made ‘a lot of mistakes’ in the first Test

“As a team, we made a lot of mistakes in these four days and Bangladesh were deserved winners,” said Masood. “They behaved well in their batting. We gave them a few chances during Mehidy and Mushfiqur’s time. [Rahim] they were playing. As a bowling unit where we lost the game was the second new ball. That’s where we could commit to the game and let ourselves down.”

As the pitch continued to settle on days three and four, Bangladesh reached, and then surpassed, Pakistan’s first innings total. The home side called on Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi when they were 448 for 6, allowing Bangladesh, batting last man, to take a 117-run lead. It is the third time in Test history that a team announced the first innings and scored six wickets or less and went on to lose the match.

“If you were to ask me now, we would have liked another 50-100 runs,” said Masood. “That would have kept us in the game. The forecast also said that the weather would interfere during the game. Those were our thoughts after saying that. We lost only six wickets in the first innings. We could have easily scored 550-600 if we kept batting but we also let it down with the bat.

Masood, too, kept the united front Pakistan out in terms of full speed attack. Despite the inexplicable absence of specialist spinners from the Pakistan team’s selection – only once in the last 28 years have they played a tough game at home – Masood pointed to the workload and the environment he expected.

“I don’t want to comment on the fifth day because we didn’t expect the game to end in four or five days,” said Masood. “If you play three fast bowlers in this weather it’s a lot of pressure on the fast bowlers. If you play a spinner, the spinner might bowl 30 overs.” However, he appeared to contradict himself, admitting later that Pakistan’s belief that there would be a weather disturbance for the match may have prompted them to hasten their announcement. At the same time, Pakistan’s interim spinners have dispatched 50 overs in Bangladesh’s first innings, a heavy burden that a specialist spinner might have been able to handle in the same manner.

“The fast bowler was played in bad weather where we can help each other to share the load. Naseem and Shaheen have not played Test cricket for a long time and Pakistan have not played Test cricket for 10 months. If we played three fast bowlers and they lost one due to injury, we would be like ‘why didn’t we play? that quick fourth down?’

The all-pace attack, and the belief that it would prove the quickest route to 20 wickets, however, did not pan out. Pakistan’s fast bowlers ended up bowling 117.3 overs, the second highest figure for a Pakistan fast bowling team in the last two decades. Masood lamented the injury to Aamer Jamal, whose all-round ability may have freed up more space for the spin bowler. “Hindsight,” as Masood says, “is always 20/20; you can always put a spinner in, but you have to look at the full balance of sides. You need seven good batsmen and top bowlers with a little help here or there.”

He accepted that Bangladesh’s spinners were useful on the final day, although he believed his team should not have let the game get to that point. “Even their spinners were only useful on the fifth day,” he said. “We had a lot of opportunities as a team with bat and ball to take the game away as a very important thing. We had time to put them under pressure when we were leading by 200 runs, and half of them were out. If you look at the way we bowled the third ball, we got their last four out quickly because we made good use of that second new ball, and how we couldn’t hold our nerve with the ball lost us.

“We are all sad, the whole nation is sad. As the leader of this team, we apologize to the nation for failing to give the people the result they wanted.”

Shan Masood after the defeat

As Masood said, Pakistan didn’t take two wickets in quick succession to pressure Bangladesh, and their first innings lasted three days and three new balls before Pakistan finally got it. He pointed to key passages of play between the innings that made the difference, while praising Bangladesh’s behaviour.

“At the end of the day, it was the way the first two innings went that decided everything. I thought we could have taken more chances, then we could have had a little bit of a lead and we could have been there. A team that put pressure on Bangladesh instead of the rest. We were a bit unlucky in certain aspects, and the kind of margins you can’t to control them.

“In the first four days, we were very busy, we were trying to make decisions, we announced early, we got points quickly. Those things don’t count at the end of the day if you lose. But their discipline was admirable, and you have to give credit to all the teams. Everyone has their own way of playing and Bangladesh for sure brought her A game, and we found it difficult to deal with.”

Masood has been around Pakistan cricket to understand the damage this defeat will cause to this Test team. “We are all sad. The whole nation is sad. As the leader of this group, we apologize to the nation for failing to give the people the result they wanted. We accept our mistakes as a group.”

There is no sign that the panic buttons will be hit, however. Masood appeared to be comfortable with the decision to attack the pace, when he left the door open for Abrar Ahmed to return in the second Test, saying that it would depend on the pitch and the weather.