This victory marked only Bangladesh’s second bilateral series win of two or more Tests away from home, the first since their 2009 triumph against the West Indies.The visitors won the opening Test by 10 wickets and wrapped up the second in just four days, despite the first day being washed out in Rawalpindi.
“Extremely disappointed, we were excited for the home season. The story has been the same as Australia, we have not learnt our lessons. We thought we were playing good cricket in Australia but not doing the job, that’s something we need to work on,” Pakistan captain Masood said.
Masood expressed frustration over the team’s recurring failures: “It has happened 4 times in my tenure that we have left the team back into the contest when we were dominating. I think Test cricket demands something else in terms of fitness. We played 4 fast bowlers in the first Test and the reason was we thought the workload would be too much for three people to manage. And that was proved in this game when we lost a fast bowler in each innings. I think even in this Test match, having just 3 bowlers and 2 spinners was less, we could have done with another pacer”.
Reflecting on the first innings, Masood acknowledged missed opportunities and said: “274 was a good score in the first innings, me and Saim could have got more runs like Litton. But we should have done better from having them at 26/6. That’s something we need to work on and work on quickly. It isn’t all doom and gloom, there are always learnings. We got Shaheen and Naseem back in the fold, Shaheen has played consistently for a year across formats and we can’t keep throwing him in the deep end. But we need to get fitter, neater and prepare better. It is going to be a long Test and domestic season and we need to be better prepared for England”.
The defeat against Bangladesh extended Pakistan’s miserable home record in Tests to 10 matches without a win.
Pakistan’s last home victory was in December 2021 against South Africa in Rawalpindi.
Since taking over as Test captain last year, Masood has now endured two consecutive clean sweeps, having lost 3-0 to Australia previously.