Pakistan captain Shan Masood broke his silence on wholesale changes made to the Pakistan squad for the 2nd and 3rd Tests of the England series. Speaking at the toss on Dy 1 of the Multan Test match, Masood said that there were things that the team could not control.
The new selection committee of the Pakistan men’s cricket team opted to drop Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Abrar Ahmed from the 2nd Test match in Multan. In place of the spinners, Pakistan drafted two spinners Noman Ali and Sajib Khan, while Babar Azam was replaced by debutant Kamran Ghulam.
Masood said that there was good energy in the camp and that Pakistan would like to give it a good crack in the second Test.
“I think firstly playing a Test match for Pakistan is a huge opportunity for anyone who wants to be a cricketer so we’re all excited and there’s some rejuvenated energy in the camp,” Shan Masood said at the toss.
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“There’s stuff we can’t control but we can control what we do on the field,” he said on the team selection.
“We’re very positive about this. We’re happy the spinners have some conditions were we can show we have some decent spinners,” he further added.
Pakistan are playing their second Test in the same pitch which was used in the first Test match of the series. Michael Atherton, who did the pitch report for the broadcaster revealed that the pitch was watered on the first two days and after that was dried using the help of two large fans on either ends.
On the day, Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first. Shan Masood and Abdullah Shafiq went back to the hut in the first session on Day 1. At the time of writing, Kamran Ghulam and Saim Ayub had dug deep and had given Pakistan some stability. Pakistan were batting at 73/2 after 25 overs.