Pakistan have not learned their lessons from recent defeats: Shan Masood

After getting clean swept in the two-match Test series against Bangladesh, Pakistan skipper Shan Masood said his team hasn’t learned any lessons from their recent defeats. On September 3 (Tuesday), the Men in Green lost the second Test by six wickets, giving Bangladesh their only second overseas Test series win in a series involving two games or more.

Pakistan were in a prime position in both Tests but allowed Bangladesh to come back and win both encounters. In the opening Test, Pakistan declared on 448/6 but then allowed Bangladesh to amass 565. Then in the second Test, Pakistan reduced Bangladesh to 26/6 before allowing Litton Das and Mehidy Hasan Miraz to put on 165 runs for the seventh wicket.

"Extremely disappointed, we were excited for the home season. The story has been the same as Australia, we have not learnt our lessons," said Masood after Pakistan extended their streak of remaining winless at home to 10 Tests. The Men in Green became only the third team after Zimbabwe and Bangladesh to remain winless in 10 or more Tests at home. 

"We thought we were playing good cricket in Australia but not doing the job, that's something we need to work on. It has happened four times in my tenure that we have left the team back into the contest when we were dominating. 274 was a good score in the first innings, me and Saim [Ayub] could have got more runs like Litton. But we should have done better from having them at 26/6. That's something we need to work on and work on quickly."

Masood also spoke about the fitness of his fast bowlers. Mohammad Ali bowled only seven overs in the first innings, while Khurram Shahzad delivered the same amount of overs in the second innings. "I think Test cricket demands something else in terms of fitness," said Masood. 

"We played four fast bowlers in the first Test and the reason was we thought the workload would be too much for three people to manage. And that was proved in this game when we lost a fast bowler in each innings. I think even in this Test match, having just 3 bowlers and 2 spinners was less, we could have done with another pacer."

Pakistan were also without Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah in the second Test and Masood wants his players to work on fitness before the England series. "It isn't all doom and gloom, there are always learnings,” said the left-handed batter, who scored 105 runs across four innings at an average of 26.25. 

“We got Shaheen and Naseem back in the fold, Shaheen has played consistently for a year across formats and we can't keep throwing him in the deep end. But we need to get fitter, neater and prepare better. It is going to be a long Test and domestic season and we need to be better prepared for England."

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