Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt highlighted the shortcomings that led to the national men’s team’s shocking defeat against Bangladesh in the first Test of the two-match series in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan suffered their first-ever defeat against Bangladesh in Tests when they succumbed to a 10-wicket defeat in the opening Test of the two-match series, underway in Rawalpindi.
Following the defeat, several strategies came under question; such as going with an all-pace attack, declaration and batting failure in the second innings.
Pakistan, after being put into bat first, accumulated 448/6 and declared their first innings in the dying minutes of the second day. Bangladesh, in response, piled up a mammoth total of 565, courtesy of Mushfiqur Rahim’s marathon 191-run knock, before bundling out in the third session of the fourth day.
The first Test was assumed to be heading towards a draw but Pakistan’s batting lineup faltered against Bangladesh’s spinners on the final day and could score 146, setting the visitors a meagre 30-run target.
Reacting to the defeat, Pakistan’s Assistant coach Azhar Mahmood blamed the pitch for behaving opposite to the expectation.
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Meanwhile, Salman Butt was of the view that the pitch was not the issue and highlighted that the national team faltered in all departments. He also drew a comparison between the pace of Bangladesh and Pakistan’s fast bowlers.
“Where should I start? Playing four fast bowlers, the declaration, the line and length, everything went wrong. I think this is the first time that the average speed of Bangladesh bowlers was higher than ours. They looked more fit than us. Our junior fast bowlers did better than our senior ones. So, there is a list of mistakes made by the team. Where should we start? Who should we pick and blame because the list goes on,” said Butt.
“Pitch was not the issue. The quality of bowling was. Our bowling coach said that the pitch didn’t turn out the way we wanted. Bowlers also said that the pitch was not good. How does that make sense? especially when Pakistan got bowled out inside two sessions. Their pacers got the wickets of our top-order batters before the spinners took the responsibility in the middle. So, this is a long list of mismanagement and incompetence,” he added.
READ: “Pakistan in a mess,” says Michael Vaughan after Bangladesh defeat