The red-ball head coach of Pakistan, Jason Gillespie, endorsed the captaincy of Shan Masood even though Pakistan recently lost a series against Bangladesh. Pakistan lost both matches, 10 wickets to the first Test and six wickets to the second, marking the beginning of Test series defeats to an opposition since 2003.
Masood endorsed because of his indifferent scoring of 105 runs in 4 innings and also for 5 test matches in row unable to lead his team to victory.
Still, during a press conference, Gillespie insisted that it was the players and not Masood that led to the blame. ‘Shan, I think, has led the side quite superbly. We just have not played well as a unit and that’s the truth. Certain areas of our performances need to be improved and we shall improve. I don’t like to speak like this, but these players are good and I want to back and believe in these players,’ he stated. To this, Masood defended himself, stressing that he believed in progress, but felt it would take time. ‘Nobody in this room is even remotely worried with respect to job security. I took this job, so that I can make the changes that these people think will be beneficial for this team. If I think this team should go in a certain direction. And that if it takes my personal failure to achieve that. Even if it takes Pakistan to that direction, I will be happy. Whatever time I get, I will be very thankful for, and do what I have to do,’ Masood was quoted as saying in the briefing.
Players under the captain were required to know and understand more advanced and seasoned players in their knocks and in their bowling apoptosis comparably red ball cricket of Bangladesh seasoned players.
It is commonplace that Muminul and Mahir are among the two Bangladesh cricketers whose test matches range between 70 to 90 (Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahman), and Litton [Das] and Mehidy [Hasan Miraz] are around 40. We need the same level of red-ball exposure. Of all formats, Test cricket is the most important. You require experience. Regarding least the number of matches our players have to play more Tests and more red-ball cricket,” Masood elucidated.
There seems to be a proactive approach by both players as well as management towards these concerns so as to avoid a repeat instance in the future. It seems that the focus is on acquiring experience and enhancing abilities in order to fight better with red-ball cricket.
