Pakistan’s defeat against Bangladesh in the first Test has led to discontent in the dressing room after a verbal slugfest between captain Shan Masood and pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi. The visiting team was dismissed for 163, their second-lowest total against Bangladesh. Chasing 268, Pakistan suffered their third consecutive loss against the Tigers following two defeats at home in 2024.
“Shan Masood was not pleased with the performance of the players and pointed a finger at Shaheen, who bowled at 132 kmph, much below the pace of Bangladesh’s speedster Nahid Rana, who touched the 145 kmph mark,” sources told Telecom Asia Sport.
“We were unable to put pressure on the rival bowlers, and the lack of speed was alarming,” Masood told the bowling unit.
“Shaheen slammed the skipper and blamed the batting for not taking a lead in the first innings. He told the captain to take his performance with the bat into account,” a source added.
Masood scored nine and two in the Test, and looked completely out of touch.
Pakistan were docked eight points for a slow over rate offence after they were found eight overs short. All the players were fined 40 percent of their match fee.
“Shan Masood deserves all the blame for the slow over rate offence as the team analyst informed him about the over rate session by session, but the captain and bowlers didn’t give it importance. It is a massive blow for Pakistan,” the source mentioned.
With eight points deducted, Pakistan are now eighth in the nine-team World Test Championship standings. They had 12 points from their victory against South Africa at home last year.
Mohammad Rizwan was also lambasted for his poor shot in the first innings.
“Rizwan was on 59, and Pakistan were in a position to take a first innings lead before Rizwan played a reckless shot and got out. The coaching staff told him to realise his responsibility,” the source highlighted.
Pakistan were restricted to 368 despite being 349 for 5 at one stage, conceding a 27-run lead. There were calls to drop Rizwan, but the management refused to act against him.
Pakistan will drop Shaheen and Imam-ul-Haq for the second Test. Babar Azam will return to the starting XI, with red-ball specialist Khurram Shahzad also getting a chance.
“The team management found nothing wrong in Babar’s injury, refuting the reports that he refused to play due to a green top pitch at Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Dhaka.”
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