Pakistan coach defends captain Shan Masood after series loss to Bangladesh: 'He has led the side very well'

Sept. 4, 2024, 4:30 a.m.

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Jason Gillespie, Pakistan’s red-ball head coach, has thrown his weight behind under-pressure captain Shan Masood after their team was handed an embarrassing clean sweep by Bangladesh in a two-match Test series. After winning their first Test against Pakistan last month, the Tigers defeated Pakistan by six wickets on Tuesday in their own backyard to register their first series win over their rivals.

Masood, as captain, has lost all five Tests so far and only managed to score 105 runs in four innings during the Test series. However, legendary Australian pace bowler Gillespie believes that Masood isn't to blame for the series loss, as the team failed to perform collectively.

Advertisement “Shan, I feel, has led the side very well. We just haven’t played well as a team and that’s the reality. We need to sharpen up on certain areas and we will sharpen up. I want to back and believe in these players, they are good enough,” Gillespie said to the broadcasters.

Read: What is wrong with Pakistan cricket?

Gillespie also defended the team’s decision to not include Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah for the second Test match on a green pitch at Rawalpindi. He said that with Bangladesh struggling at 26/6, everything looked good before Litton Das and Mehidy Hasan Miraz scripted a turnaround with a partnership of 165 runs.

“We felt that the attack we put on the park would be able to do the job. We could argue they did when we had the opposition 26/6 but they fought themselves back into the game. At that point, not many people were talking about selection. We looked at the conditions, saw the surface here, and thought this was the best make-up of the bowling attack to take wickets on this surface,” Gillespie said.

Pakistan has been unable to secure a victory in their last 10 home Tests. The last time they experienced such a prolonged period of poor form was between 1969 and 1975.