When Pakistan named their XI for the first Test against Bangladesh on August 19, it was a bit surprising to see they were going in with no spinner. Going with an all-pace attack isn’t normal, especially in Asian conditions. But that’s what captain Shan Masood and head coach Jason Gillespie decided to go with. In the second session of the fifth day, Pakistan lost the Test. A first-ever defeat to Bangladesh, and that too at home when all the chips should have been in their favour. What went wrong, and who’s to blame for this humiliating defeat?
No trust in spinners
This isn’t going to be a one-word answer. The loss isn’t because of one individual or moment in the match that changed it all. Let’s start before the match. Pakistan didn’t play Abrar Ahmed, one of the most promising Test spinners in the world? What did the leg spinner do wrong—take 38 wickets in 6 matches?
Bangladesh played two front-line spinners, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan. Granted, both are all-rounders as well, but they carried their weight with the ball. Together, they claimed 9 of Pakistan’s 16 wickets, 7 of which came on the last day of the match. So that’s a major miscalculation of how the pitch will play. Meanwhile, Pakistan went with one part-timer, Agha Salman, who bowled 42.3 overs and got no wickets. Saim Ayub and Saud Shakeel bowled a further 9 overs in the match and got one wicket between them.
“We cannot prepare spinning pitches in Pakistan because we don’t have the quality of spinners to take 20 wickets in a match,” said Pakistan’s assistant coach Azhar Mahmood after the fourth day’s play. It’s clear that Pakistan doesn’t trust Abrar, Nauman Ali or Sajid Khan. Let’s say neither of these three spinners is good enough. But on the lifeless pitches that have been rolled out for the last couple of years, why do we need to run four pacers into the ground and risk injuries? Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah have both suffered setbacks recently, and this seemed like a recipe for disaster.
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Clueless Shan Masood
Let’s come to that declaration now. Shan Masood may have taken one of the worst decisions by a Pakistan captain in their Test history. Why do you need to declare after scoring just 448 runs? The pitch was placid at the moment, with even Shaheen Afridi looking at home. What’s the need to have a bowl at that moment when you aren’t ahead in the game? Unless you think Bangladesh, a team that beat New Zealand away from home in 2022, isn’t good enough.
Not sure how much you can blame bowlers when the pitch didn’t offer anything in the first four days. On the last day as well, it wasn’t turning square like it does in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or India. Pakistani batters have crumbled under pressure quite a few times. That happened in Rawalpindi as well. This wasn’t a pitch to be all out for in 55.5 overs. It feels like the fear of defeat takes over the mindset of the batters.
Look how Abdullah Shafique and Shan Masood batted yesterday. With 7.8 overs remaining in the day, they scored 18 runs. Now, that’s sensible cricket, some would say. Is it? If you want to get the message across that you want to win by declaring on 448/6, why don’t you smash the bowlers and show that just one day might be left but we are here to win? But when the crunch time came, captain Masood buckled under pressure.
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