Follow UsShan Masood, the captain of the Pakistan cricket team denied the advantage to his team because Ben Stokes, England’s original red-ball skipper, will be missing the first match of the three-Test series, starting October 7 (Monday) in Multan.
“We all know that Ben Stokes is one of the best all-rounders in the world. But England have played without him, not just now, but even on earlier occasions,” Masood said in the pre-match press conference on October 6 (Sunday) in Multan.
“I don’t think that the team’s strength will be so much compromised just because of Stokes. They have a settled unit with all-rounders who can bat, three spinners, pacer and batters who bat deep,” added the 34-year-old.
Could Pakistan draw lessons from Sri Lanka’s win against the English in England? Masood felt that they had far greater inspiration to draw from.
“Sure, Sri Lanka did beat them, but these conditions are different and if anything, we should draw inspiration from our last series against England at home where we were in winning conditions on most occasions,” said the left-handed batter, who has been unable to win a series ever since taking over as team’s red-ball leader.
The Pakistan team made several changes in their playing 11 from their last game against Bangladesh. However, most of the changes were in the bowling department. But it was batters that failed Pakistan in that series against the Tigers.
“We have to look at the selection of bowlers and batters differently. The batters did well in the first innings against Bangladesh, it was the collapse in the second innings that cost us the game.
"On the other hand, we would always want to have a fresh Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah [Afridi] in the team. Changes might come in as per workload management as all three–Shaheen, Naseem and Jamal could play in the limited overs series in Australia as well,” Masood said, justifying the playing 11 selections.
Terming that one cannot decide a Test match’s strategy in one day, Masood said that there is a reason why the game is a five-day affair, and the strategy changes every day. Therefore, they have picked eight players who can bat.
“We have played three pacers and two spinners in this game. But among pacers and spinners, both Salman Ali Agha and Aamer Jamal can give us crucial runs down the order which we missed in the Bangladesh series,” he added.
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