Shan Masood doesn't hold back on PAK's poor form under his captaincy: 'It's been like Australia all over again'

Following Pakistan's disappointing performance in the 2023 ODI World Cup, Babar Azam faced mounting criticism over his leadership skills and was subsequently relieved of his captaincy duties across all formats. In his place, Shan Masood was appointed as the new Test captain. However, the 34-year-old experienced a dismal start to his captaincy tenure, losing all five of his initial matches in charge. The rough patch continued for Masood as Pakistan suffered a humiliating whitewash in Australia. To make matters worse, Bangladesh pulled off a stunning upset against Pakistan at home, achieving a historic 2-0 clean sweep. The crushing defeat left Masood feeling "extremely disappointed" as he struggled to turn things around for his team.

For the first time in Test cricket history, Pakistan suffered a loss against Bangladesh when the Najmul Shanto-led side won the series opener on August 25 in Rawalpindi. However, the hosts did find themselves in a commanding position in the second match, when they left Bangladesh reeling at 26 for six after being folded for 276 runs in the first innings. But a brilliant recovery act from centurion Litton Das and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who hit a fifty in their triple-figure partnership, left Bangladesh just 12 shy of Pakistan's first-innings total.

In the second innings, pacers Nahid Rana and Mahmud Rana picked up nine wickets between themselves to fold Pakistan for just 172 runs, before Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim took Bangladesh past the finish line on the final day of the match.

While the six-wicket win was Bangladesh's eighth win in an overseas Test, helped them secure their fourth whitewash in Test history and second away from home, for Pakistan, it was the second instance of incurring a whitewash at home after going 0-3 down against England in 2022.

Speaking at the post-match presentation, Masood, who is yet to win a match as a Test captain, minced no words in his brutal assessment of Pakistan's winless run in his tenure. He felt that the team did not learn from their past mistakes and failed to capitalise on moments they were dominating in the Bangladesh series.

"Extremely disappointed, we were excited for the home season. The story has been the same as Australia, we have not learnt our lessons. We taught we were playing good cricket in Australia but not doing the job, that's something we need to work on. It has happened 4 times in my tenure that we have left the team back into the contest when we were dominating," he said.

Masood also reckoned that while Pakistan missed a fourth seamer in the match, he stressed the need to work on fitness.

"I think Test cricket demands something else in terms of fitness. We played 4 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," he said.

Pakistan will next take on England in a three-match Test series at home next month.