ISLAMABAD: Pakistan captain Shan Masood admitted his side made a “lot of mistakes” which ultimately contributed to his team’s historic loss against Bangladesh in the first Test match at Rawalpindi recently.
After declaring at an impressive 448-6, Pakistan succumbed to a shock defeat at the hands of Bangladesh in the first Test match on Sunday. The visitors responded to Pakistan’s first innings total with a massive 556 runs before bowling them out for a hapless 146. Requiring only 30 runs to win against Pakistan in a Test match for the first time ever, Bangladesh cruised to victory with 10 wickets in hand.
Poor choice of shots and failure to capitalize on opportunities cost Pakistan the match. The latest loss is likely to further demoralize the South Asian country after they suffered a first-round exit from the T20 World Cup in June this year, losing to India and minnows the United States in the group stages.
“As a team, we made a lot of mistakes over the four days and Bangladesh were worthy winners,” Masood said during the post-match conference on Sunday. “They were very disciplined in their batting. We gave them a few chances as well when Mehidy [Hasan] and Mushfiqur [Rahim] were playing.”
Masood noted Pakistan lost an excellent opportunity to turn the game around in their favor at the 82-over mark. Bangladesh had scored 239 at the loss of five wickets but in the final ten overs of the day, when Pakistan took the new ball, they punished Pakistan’s errant bowling to score 67 runs and swing momentum their way.
The Pakistani skipper also regretted that the green shirts declared the first innings at 448-6 with Muhammad Rizwan batting at 171 and Shaheen Shah Afridi at 29.
“If you asked me now, we would have liked another 50-100 runs,” Masood admitted. “That would have kept us in the game. The forecast also indicated the weather would be disruptive during the game. Those were our thoughts behind the declaration as well.”
Masood, however, defended Pakistan’s choice not to head into the match with a specialist spinner. The captain said the squad had to consider the workload and the surface in mind whilst finalizing the playing XI.
“The fast bowler was played looking at the extreme weather conditions where we could help each other share the load,” he said. “Naseem [Shah] and Shaheen hadn’t played Test cricket for a while and Pakistan haven’t played Test cricket for ten months. If we played three fast bowlers and lost one through injury, we could have been like ‘Why didn’t we play that fourth fast bowler?’“
The Test captain said he knew the nation was upset, adding that so was the national squad after the humiliating defeat.
“As a leader of this team, we apologize to the nation for failing to give people the result they wanted,” he said. “We accept our mistakes as a team.”
Pakistan play the second Test match against Bangladesh also in Rawalpindi from Aug. 30-Sept. 3.
