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ToggleThe former Pakistan batter, Basit Ali, has slammed the current captain of the longest format, Shan Masood, for turning out to be a ‘yes-man’ among the present players in the squad, as he seems to be agreeing everything that the new red-ball coach of the side, Jason Gillespie, has been saying.
Shan Masood didn’t enjoy a great start to his captaincy career in the Test format, having lost the three-match series against Australia in their last trip in 2023, as their batters hardly had any response towards the quality pacers of the home side.
They are currently at the sixth position in the ongoing and third cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 and need to win all of the seven home games against Bangladesh, England, and West Indies to have a chance of making the final of the tournament.
“Shan Masood is making the same mistake as Babar Azam”- Basit Ali
The former middle-order batter of the Pakistan side, Basit Ali, reckons that Masood is making the same mistakes as the former captain of the five-day format of the team.
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“Shan Masood has become a yes-man; it is a pity. He is making the same mistakes that Babar did after being reinstated as the captain.” Ali expressed this in a recent video shared on his YouTube channel.
Both the games against Bangladesh will be played at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on August 21 and 30 respectively, as they announced an all-pace bowling attack for the opening contest of the series.
In the same video, the Karachi-born blamed the team management for their team selection for the first Test against Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side. He felt that it was an error from the committee to deny a spinner in the side, and they would go downhill if their think tank continued to make such errors constantly.
Basit also reckoned that the management would anyway back their choice of players and tag the decision of not playing Abrar Ahmed, the lone spinner, right, but they would get a reality check during their following home series against England in later autumn.
“They have made a mockery of Pakistan. Now they will win against Bangladesh and say we took the right calls. The fans will also say that the team management made great decisions. When England will come, you will know the reality.” The 53-year-old slammed.
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Shan Masood will hope to get better performance for their batters in the series and aim to win both games with a huge margin over Bangladesh. The planning behind the team not going with a spinner in the side seems to be because of the struggle of the opponents against the pacers whether they are quite good against the spinners.
Pakistan’s Playing XI for First Test vs Bangladesh
Saim Ayub, Shan Masood (C), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel (VC), Mohammad Rizwan (WK), Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Khurram Shahzad, and Mohammad Ali.