Shaheen Afridi hasn’t been at his best since he suffered that knee injury during the 2022 T20 World Cup Final. When he returned, we saw a drop in his pace. The left-arm pacer used to be a consistent threat before, but since he was good with just the new ball. So when head coach Jason Gillespie announced that Shaheen wouldn’t play in the Pakistan vs Bangladesh 2nd Test after a somewhat underwhelming performance in the first game, it somewhat made sense.
Playing Mir Hamza, the right call?
Mir Hamza came in as a like-for-like replacement. He did well with the new ball, something Shaheen has excelled in as well. The pitch seemed to be offering more than the first test, and Hamza capitalized on that. He got Mominul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim’s wicket in his first spell, and Pakistan were on top. But soon the pitch became placid, and Hamza looked toothless. Unlike Shaheeh, who can clean the tail as Hamza’s a one-trick pony. When the pitch stopped assisting him, captain Shan Masood stopped handing him the ball.
Naseem Shah too wasn’t included in the Playing XI. This one was more perplexing. Naseem had injured himself during the Asia Cup 2023 and was out of action for almost six months. But he wasn’t struggling like Shaheen. He lacked some match practice in first-class cricket, but Gillespie and Masood chose that both Mohammed Ali and Khurram Shahzad would start ahead of him.
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Ali over Naseem raises question
Khurram did exceedingly well, and that too throughout the innings. Taking a 6-wicket haul, which included the prized wickets Shakib Al Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, and Najmul Hossain Shanto. He got the top three and cleaned the tail-enders as well. Both Khurram and Hamza should be applauded for reducing Pakistan to 26/6, but post that first session, the pacers got just two wickets, both of which were taken by Khurram.
Pakistan bowled 76.4 overs in the day, with Abrar Ahmed rolling his arm the most (29 overs). However, Mohammed Ali, the third pacer, bowled just 7. The question arises: if Ali wasn’t needed, why didn’t Masood and Gillespie play another spinner or batter? Why not play Naseem? He can surely give you 7 overs a day, and that too of high quality.
Having Bangladesh at 26/6 and then allowing them to end their inning at 262 isn’t the best look. Litton Das and Mehidy stitched a 165-run stand, and Litton went on to score 138, but that was due to venom-less bowling and some poor fielding as usual. The question is, how would things have looked if at least one of Shaheen or Naseem played ahead of Ali?
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