Rawalpindi was the venue for day two of the first Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh and the hosts declared their innings at 448/6, with Mohammad Rizwan still needing one more century for a 29th.
Having combined with his vice-captain, Rizwan finished unbeaten on 171 from 239 deliveries. The match completely changed after Saudi Arabia’s Shakir aggregated 141 runs for his team, putting Pakistan in control. Captain Jean Massoud announced this decisionWhat happened before Rizwan achieved his double century sparked debate among fans.
Some social media commentators were upset that the rare opportunity to score a double century was taken away from Rizwan. Many others believed that Masood should have given more time to Rizwan in order for him to add more runs. Since as a result of partnership between Shakir and Rizwan who had already scored over 240 runs at that point.
Saudi Arabian Shakir spoke about the team’s choice during a press conference after the match.
“I don’t think we hurriedly decided to declare the inning so it wouldn’t be fair to say anything regarding Rizwan bhai’s double hundred,” said Shakir. “One hour ago he (R) has been told clearly when it would have been announced. So he knew when we would announce it. He was told we would try get up towards four-fifty before declaring.”
Shakir made clear that what they did was done by agreement previously. In explaining why this is important, he stressed on collective targets of any team rather than individual goals.
“We want to make sure we get enough runs on the board to put pressure on Bangladesh and set ourselves up for a win,” added Shakir.
This leaves Pakistan well placed while Bangladesh conceded a big first-innings lead which puts them at risk in the game going forward.
