Test captain Shan Masood has declared that Pakistan team need to start well, get quickly off the blocks and play a positive brand of cricket if they want to challenge the mighty Australians in second Test match starting on Tuesday in Melbourne, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Shan Masood, however, made it clear that the guys need time to do that as it can’t happen overnight.
Talking to the media ahead of the Boxing Day Test starting tomorrow, Shan Masood shed shed light on the decision to replace Sarfaraz Ahmed with Mohammad Rizwan. "We think Rizwan is ready and we can give Sarfaraz a little bit of a break to recoup and come back," he said and added "It's more of a tactical decision in terms of the conditions and what we can get out of each player."
Masood acknowledged the challenging conditions in Perth and emphasized the need for a strategic approach tailored to each player. "It was hard out there in Perth. But I still feel there were some positives that probably we didn't do back when we were here in 2019. We don't want to force people to play a certain way. But we've sort of outlined certain things that we want to do better." Pakistan captain Shan Masood on the style of cricket Pakistan want to play in Melbourne.
The Pakistani skipper called for patience as he backs his side to play an attacking brand of cricket against the top teams in Test cricket.
Masood reiterated that a change cannot happen overnight. "One Test is never a fair assessment," he said, adding "You need time. You need a bit more time. You've already got a squad that's been playing Test cricket for a while. You have to look at the domestic structure and the players available for red-ball cricket. A lot of things you need before you can sort of force that way of playing.
"You need players to buy in. We want to give players ample opportunity to buy into the way we want to play. There are some things that we've said from the outside that we want to play a more attractive brand of Test cricket. We did that in Sri Lanka. We got some results as well. The challenge now is to do it against the best teams in world cricket."
Masood pointed out how Australia scored at more than four runs an over consistently which meant a huge total was always on the cards despite Pakistan striking regularly at one point. And in their reply, the visitors couldn't even manage to score at three an over.
"We don't want to force people to play a certain way but we've outlined a few things that we want to do better," he remarked. "When Australia scored, they scored at 4.5 an over, even though we got the 10 wickets. They set us back with that. And then they bowled, they made sure we didn't get over 3 runs an over. We were 2.6-2.7. Those are the margins. That's where the Test match was lost.
"On Day 4, we saw the pitch, that's where the toss came into play, but the game had been decided in those (first two) days. If we have to compete against Australia here, we have to start well and get quickly off the blocks and play a positive brand of cricket, which you have to give the guys some time. It can't happen overnight. You have to see how players play naturally. You have to convince them as to how you want them to play and then give them a proper chance and also try and set the tone yourself. I thought that I had a decent start in Perth but couldn't capitalise on it. Got out at the wrong time. These are the things that you want to do. But be patient with the players. Just because one match hasn't gone our way, we shouldn't go 'this is isn't working or that there is no Pakistan way'. We should let our team have some time to establish themselves."
Masood led by example in that first innings when he started off in quick fashion, fetching five boundaries. But he couldn't capitalise on that start and departed for 30 as Pakistan conceded a huge first innings lead. "We have to be adaptable to different situations," he pointed out when asked about his approach. "You also have to give a lot of credit to the openers. When you concede 450 runs in the first innings and you've got heavy legs and you've been out there for 110 overs. They did the right thing over there. They negated the new ball and got through some really good spells from top class bowlers. That's what you needed to do in that situation.
"When I went out, the ball was a bit older, run-scoring was a bit easier. You need to pick your moments and you want to pick your battles. That's what I want the team to do. Be adaptable to different situations. Be positive. And not have huge margins where the other team is scoring at 4.5 and we'll let them score at 4.5 as a bowling unit and not picking up those wickets in an earlier phase and not in 110 overs. And secondly as a batting unit, if we're batting for 100 overs, we'd like to close that gap and score 350 or 360 or something like that. Again it's about from a personal point of view, it's something that I've enjoyed over the last few years. My red-ball in domestic cricket has improved since I started batting more positively. As a batting unit, our goal is to make sure that if we are batting 100 overs then we score at a higher rate."
The 34-year-old also explained the rationale behind going back to Mohammad Rizwan for the wicketkeeper's slot in place of veteran Sarfaraz Ahmed for the next Test. "We wanted to set a precedent where we wanted to reward people who have been playing red-ball consistently in domestic cricket over the past few years," Masood said on picking Sarfaraz for the first Test.
"You saw that with the selection of KS (Khurram Shahzad) and AJ (Aamer Jamal) even though a lot of people felt it was quite risky putting two debutants out there. I think they handled themselves well and we have to give them credit because their first outing in Australia was quite decent. The reason to play Sarfaraz was pretty much the same. People go back to stats and Rizwan averages very well in SENA. Firstly, there's no competition between the two. They're equally important to the team. Any competition they have is healthy competition. We know what Rizwan has done but we gave Sarfaraz the benefit because he averaged 56.50 on his last tour here in 2016. Yes, that's been quite a while but he's also played red ball consistently in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy in the last few years.
"Rizwan just came from the World Cup, a lot of white-ball cricket. And he also had a gap in red-ball cricket since Sarfaraz took over from him for the New Zealand series. Sarfaraz had an outstanding performance there and Rizwan hadn't played a lot of red-ball cricket. So there was a method to it. He's been there, he played red-ball cricket. Karachi had a very good season where he was the tournament's MVP, and that allowed us to get a player like Rizwan into shape. If I had it my way, I'd ideally like both to play but that's not possible. Now we think Rizwan is ready and we can give Saifi that little bit of break to recuperate and come back."
Australia named an unchanged XI on Monday for the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as they look to seal the series against Pakistan.
Pakistan has also revealed a 12-member squad for the second Test, with the official starting line-up set to be disclosed tomorrow.
Pakistan squad: Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (capt), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan, Agha Salman, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Mir Hamza, Aamer Jamal, Sajid Khan
Australia XI: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (capt), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood