Pakistan cricket is receiving a lot of criticism after their dismal performance against Bangladesh in the Test match held on Sunday. This defeat has seen Pakistan lose to Bangladesh for the first time in fourteen encounters. Fans and experts’ disappointment and frustration, which were previously directed to the Pakistan Cricket Board and team management, have now shifted to captain Shan Masood, and questions are being raised as to whether he is the right leader for the group.
Controversial Pakistani cricketer Ahmad Shehzad did not cut any slack for Shan Masood and accused him of poor decision-making, questioning his every captaining move throughout the rawalpindi test. Shehzad lashed out at Masood for not even understanding the fundamentals of the game of test cricket letting alone being an effective leader or batsmen.
According to Ahmad Shehzad expressed in a video uploaded on social platform X, he was appalled when he noticed that now there are very few fans willing to watch Pakistan doing its best at the cricket. ‘Anytime Pakistan has a game that’s it […] the people switch off the TV. And this is one thing that I am telling you from the perspective of the people. If you go to the people you understand what they are saying. You are not suppressing the fans anymore,’ Shehzad has claimed. Continuing on, Shehzad issued a barrage of darts against Shan Masood’s decisions in the match, including batting order that suited the team’s composition and good reading of the game inside the field. ‘You are today the captain of the Pakistan team, but still there is ambiguity about what your objectives are. There is no comprehension certainly of how the playing XI would look like. You could not even read the type of the wicket. You did not have a spinner in the playing XI. The reason why you gave in the press conference, about fourth fast bowler and workload management, was wrong managing players. The style of cricket that we are supposed to play and explain what you said was not appropriate,’ revealed Shehzad.
Querying further on Shan Masood’s leadership skills, Ahmad Shehzad stated as follows, “Aap ki apni performance kuch nahi hai. Koi leadership skills aapne dikhayi nahi hai in this pure match ke ander ke. Samajh aarti hai aapki bowlers ne kutch bhi perform nahi kiya unka caliber yahi hai. Samajh aati he ki aapki batsmen ne bura khela paanchwe din, caliber yehi hai. But you did not do anything as a leader.”In these heavy underlined quotes, frankly look— “Your own performance is nothing. You did not show any leadership skills throughout the match. I understand if your bowlers under performed, that’s their caliber. I understand if your batsmen hit poorly on the fifth Day, that’s their level. But as a leader, you did nothing here.”
Ahmad Shehzad struck such a point that he noticed that in test cricket, there is time and stuff to be done but there is no way everything can be accomplished without knowledge. “In Test cricket, there is enough time and there is so much to do but again, you have the need for knowledge, you have the need for smartness, and you have to know these things and find a way to use it through your players to implement them. If you don’t acquire that knowledge yourself, how would you expect to instruct your players?” He did not stop there. “When for example there are some little achievements for instance a small partnership, you begin making unnecessary movements for instance lift fielders for the sake of it, always trying to prove that you are busy.”
In the end, Shehzad’s vitriolic tone was directed to Shan Masood who was quick to respond saying “You are just trying to cover your nakedness. The problem is that there is a reason for every decision made and you don’t know the reason. We understand that you don’t know. But you are made the captain of Pakistan.” His colleagues and fans have stood firmly by him and his colleagues so far in all the matches fought. Despite those wonders and even more so worse criticisms of Ahmad Shehzad’s ‘growing agitation,’ he, Sadokov and fellow fans can expect little respite that with Pakistan to play Bangladesh very soon in the second Test, the hammer is coming more down unchecked for Shan Masood and co, any further losses might be dedication for the burial.
