In a big blow to Pakistan, in-form batter Shan Masood has been ruled out of the second and last Test slated for August 2-6 at Port-of-Spain. In the first Test, the left-hander was the lone centurion of the match as he scored 109 in the first innings at No.3. During the course of the innings, Caribbean pacer Jayden Seales hit him on his left index finger and later it emerged that the former captain had broken it. In the second innings with Pakistan staring at a massive defeat, Masood came out to bat at No.8 but this time his innings could only last 15 balls as Seales dispatched him for 3. Chasing 211 to win, Pakistan folded for 120 to give the West Indies a 90-run win and a 1-0 lead in the series.
One of Abdullah Shafique, Saud Shakeel and Awais Zafar can be Masood’s replacement at Port-of-Spain. Pakistan are traveling to England next month for a Test series and Masood is now a big doubt for that important rubber. The first game of a three-Test series starts on August 19. Clearly, there is very little time for Masood to recover, so as of now, it looks like he can’t make it.
Earlier, after the crushing defeat against the West Indies, Pakistan captain Babar Azam, who scored 58 not out in the second innings, said injury to Masood dented their chances in a big way at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad. “Yes, Shan Masood’s injury affected us because, unfortunately, his finger is fractured, so we definitely missed him.”
But Azam also acknowledged that the Pakistani batters were not up to scratch either in the second innings. “At the same time, when you’re facing the new ball, you have to survive the first 20 overs, build partnerships, and then, as the ball gets older, the pitch becomes easier to bat on. We couldn’t put together those partnerships.
“We played good cricket in the last few days, but today we were not up to the mark as a batting unit. The surface is good, and we expected the new ball to move, for which we were prepared… but I think they bowled very well and used the conditions nicely. We’ll sit together and discuss these things because, while the result hasn’t gone our way, we can certainly address our mistakes. We’ll do our best to correct them and ensure we improve going forward,” he said.
