Shan Masood‘s latest incarnation, as the Test captain of Pakistan, is perhaps the most remarkable in a career not short of rebirths and reinventions. Shan Masood‘s elevation as the successor to Babar Azam was surprising at a number of levels, not least that Shan Masood only returned to the Test side last season after a gap of nearly two years or that he has only one fifty since then.
Or that earlier in the year, when Shan Masood was similarly and surprisingly recalled to the ODI side after nearly four years out, he came in as vice-captain but was then kept out of the XI for a few games as speculation swirled about an uneasy relationship with then captain Babar.
Shan Masood’s captaincy stint for Pakistan
Despite an intermittent international career, Masood has built up some leadership experience along the way. Shan Masood was captain of Multan Sultans in the PSL, led Derbyshire in the T20 Blast and, most significantly, led Yorkshire in the County Championship last season. Yorkshire finished second from bottom in Division two, though that was the result of a 48-point penalty imposed on them in the fallout from the racism hearings earlier in the year
All three of their wins came under Shan Masood’s captaincy and he averaged 60 in the seven games he played, with two centuries and three half-centuries. Though he hasn’t yet made a score of significance since his latest return to the Test side, he was an important cog in Pakistan’s series win in Sri Lanka this summer. At one down, he set the attacking tempo to which Pakistan batted – the Pakistan Way as it was then called. T
That aggression has been clear in the small – and not especially successful – sample size of nine innings since his return. He averages less than 25 but is striking at nearly 78. A strike rate of 77.50 in the County Championship was the highest among Division two’s top 50 run-getters.
Shan Masood replaced Babar Azam as Test captain last year, his first assignment a daunting trip to Australia where Pakistan haven’t avoided defeat – let alone win a Test – since 1995-96. They were duly whitewashed but having pushed Australia in a couple of the games.
The first step, Shan Masood believes, however, is to become more formidable at home. For a couple of seasons after Test cricket returned to Pakistan, they built up a winning home record. But since beating South Africa in January 2021, Pakistan have not won in three home series since, and not even won a Test. They were whitewashed by England before somehow escaping with a 0-0 draw with New Zealand.
Those series – as well as an earlier one with Australia – were played on lifeless surfaces, in stark contrast to the livelier ones when Tests first returned. With a new curator – Tony Hemming – in place, that will be under scrutiny again this season.
Pakistan’s jam packed test season ahead of WTC finals
Pakistan start a jam-packed home season with a two-Test series against Bangladesh, beginning in Rawalpindi on August 21. They host five more Tests at home, against England and then West Indies, and in between play a two-Test series in South Africa. As an indication of how rare this is, the last time Pakistan played more Tests in a season was over 25 years ago, in the 1998-99 season when they played ten.
More than the number of Tests, the long gaps between them have hindered any chance of progress. The Tests against Bangladesh will be Pakistan’s first since the New Year’s Test in Sydney this year. Once they finish the series against West Indies in January 2025, they are not scheduled to play any Tests until October when South Africa visit (and then none until a series against Bangladesh in March 2026).
Shan Masood argued that the stop-start, intermittent nature of this scheduling has caused a gap to develop between the big three of India, Australia and England and other Full Members. He is not alone in this, with Kraigg Brathwaite having made a similar appeal after West Indies’ 3-0 series loss against England last month.
Shan Masood is upset about scheduling of less Test matches for Pakistan ahead of 2 match series vs Bangladesh
Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood has called for more red-ball cricket for the national team to improve their fortunes in the format. The left-handed batter also admitted that they must identify and implement a style of play for home Test matches, having produced poor results in the past.
The Men in Green will begin a busy period of home Tests on August 21 when they host Bangladesh for a two-game series. After Bangladesh, they will host England for three Tests, followed by another series against the West Indies.
Speaking on the PCB podcast, Masood stated that Pakistan play plenty of red-ball matches, but the number reduces drastically on the international level. As quoted by ESPN Cricinfo, he said:
“We need more Test cricket. We play a lot of domestic cricket, so I don’t think we can blame that. We do play ten first-class matches minimum, and with the introduction of departmental cricket, some players ended up playing 16-17 first-class matches in a year.”
The 34-year-old opined that it’s unfortunate that the men’s team last played a Test in January.
“For me, it’s more about how we can get our team to play more Test matches. We’re playing nine Test matches in four months, but we’ve also had to deal with an unfortunate calendar where we played in Australia, and then we’re playing our next Test after ten months.”
Pakistan had a forgettable home season in 2022-23, losing to England 3-0 and drawing the two-Test series against New Zealand.