Pakistan captain Shan Masood admitted they didn’t learn their lessons after the series loss against Australia and thus had to pay the price against Bangladesh. The hosts were stunned by Bangladesh in the two-match Test series, losing the opening Test by 10 wickets and then suffering a six-wicket loss in the second game.
Last year, Pakistan suffered a 3-0 series loss against Australia while playing away. Meanwhile, Pakistan was dominated by the Tigers in the two-match series. Bangladesh were able to clinch the crucial moments to take advantage in the series.
Masood said in the post-match presentation, “Extremely disappointed, we were excited for the home season. The story has been the same as Australia, we have not learnt our lessons. We thought we were playing good cricket in Australia but not doing the job, that’s something we need to work on. It has happened four times in my tenure that we have left the team back into the contest when we were dominating.”
In fact, the tourists were 26-6 in the first innings after Pakistan posted 274 runs in the second Test but the hosts could not capitalise on the dominating position.
“274 was a good score in the first innings, me and Saim [Ayub] and could have got more runs like Litton. But we should have done better from having them at 26/6. That’s something we need to work on and work on quickly,” added Masood, who scored 57 in the first innings.
Masood admitted that Test cricket demands a different kind of fitness at the top level and felt they missed a fast bowler in the second Test.
“I think Test cricket demands something else in terms of fitness. We played four fast bowlers in the first Test and the reason was we thought the workload would be too much for three people to manage. And that was proved in this game when we lost a fast bowler in each innings. I think even in this Test match, having just 3 bowlers and 2 spinners was less, we could have done with another pacer,” said Masood.
Pakistan will need to turn the tables and come up with an improved performance in the upcoming matches.
