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Shan Masood speaking to the press ahead of the 4-day game against PM IX:
''It's going to be an emotional series for David Warner. He has been a great service to world cricket, not just Australian cricket, and we wish him all the best in whatever he chooses to do. He is a great ambassador for the game. For us, he is one of their main players, and we would like to get him out as early as possible. We wish him all the best, and hopefully, we can provide him with a challenging series.''
''I think, as a batter, it was a bit bittersweet. On the last Australian tour, I got a couple of starts, but you want to convert those starts in Test cricket to get 3 figures, so that will be my test and my opportunity. We got used to the conditions very well. I think Babar got a hundred and Yasir Shah got a hundred, but there were a lot of 50+ scores from batters on the last tour, so we want to convert those into bigger scores and convert them into match-winning scores. As I said, we have a settled opening pair from last year or so, Imam and Abdullah. As far as conditions go, a side also looks at conditions. If we have to make a couple of decisions regarding conditions, we will do so for the betterment of the team.''
"We have six other guys with Shaheen, each posing a different kind of threat for the batters. Two top first-class performers, like Mir Hamza, who is a left-arm bowler, have also played some county cricket and played a couple of test matches. We have got Khurram Shahzad, who is the highest wicket-taker in our domestic season, and we thought that we could utilize somebody like Muhammad Wasim Junior, who can add a bit of pace, and if the ball does reverse at SCG, he will be quite handy. Aamir Jamal is an all-rounder that we are keeping an eye on. He has some good pace and hammers a good length, which might be very useful here. And we are hoping that Faheem Ashraf grows into the stroll and provides us something with the bat and something really good with the ball. So we have quite a lot of options, and hopefully we will see what we can bring out tomorrow, and that might reflect what we can go with in a test match."
"I haven't seen any drama personally. We are very well focused on the job that is in our hands. We got here and got a couple of days of rest, and we have been straight into practice. We have done some fitness work. For us, it is about what is in our control and our preparation, and we know that we are going against the world test champions in their own backyard, and it is going to be a challenging series, but it is an exciting opportunity for all of us to put our skills to the test and obviously take some points into our world test championship in this cycle as well."
"For us, it has mainly been jet lag and a bit of rain, but we have been lucky that we got a full day of practice yesterday. It's a beautiful place with beautiful ground and an ideal way to start a tour, and we are looking really forward to it. I think it is very important, especially given the nature of the game. It is a first-class fixture, and we are playing against a side that is very well-equipped. They have a lot of Australian internationals and a lot of people knocking on that Australian door, so probably it is an ideal way for us to start against the world test champions. It is hard naming people because I think they have a few internationals, but Cameron Green is one of them that is in 14; somebody to look out for. He has all the potential to be a world-class all-rounder, and we are looking forward to coming up against him. Obviously, we want to face him; you want to play the best, but again, given the nature of the game, it's a competitive first-class fixture, and we are looking forward to it."
"I think you are spot on; it's a four-day fixture, and we would like to manage some loads as well, so it might be possible that he might be resting some players that we feel have worked a lot in the recent past. But look, we have 18 players; we have 7 fast bowlers, probably giving us an ideal opportunity to test which combination we might be taking with us into Perth. And it will be a great test for the batters, having probably two innings in these four days. It will be a good test against a very good attack, and they will just try to get the best preparation out of it. Pace and bounce are obviously things that are given in Australia. We have been very fortunate that a lot of guys were part of the 2019 tour; some even came on the 2016 tour, which is sort of a replica of this series in terms of the fixture list except Perth and Brisbane being a switch, and we were lucky to play the T20 World Cup last year. I feel as a batter that those were testing conditions, but we still did a decent job as a batting unit, so there are a lot of guys who have experience, and it is the pace and bounce in Australia and their pace attack along with Nathan lyon that you want to get used to and you want to put a under pressure right from the word go because they have been dominating the world for a while."
"i think we have spoken together as a team to play with positive mindset and an aggressive mindset. Whenever we get an opportunity to put the opposition under pressure, we will look to jump on it. Test cricket has changed a lot. Time factor is important. According to it, as a batting unit, our scoring rate has to improve a bit. And we need to be equipped and determined to take 20 wickets. These are the basics of Test matches. We will try and do our best to do these things properly," he said.''It's going to be an emotional series for David Warner. He has been a great service to world cricket, not just Australian cricket, and we wish him all the best in whatever he chooses to do. He is a great ambassador for the game. For us, he is one of their main players, and we would like to get him out as early as possible. We wish him all the best, and hopefully, we can provide him with a challenging series.''
''I think, as a batter, it was a bit bittersweet. On the last Australian tour, I got a couple of starts, but you want to convert those starts in Test cricket to get 3 figures, so that will be my test and my opportunity. We got used to the conditions very well. I think Babar got a hundred and Yasir Shah got a hundred, but there were a lot of 50+ scores from batters on the last tour, so we want to convert those into bigger scores and convert them into match-winning scores. As I said, we have a settled opening pair from last year or so, Imam and Abdullah. As far as conditions go, a side also looks at conditions. If we have to make a couple of decisions regarding conditions, we will do so for the betterment of the team.''
"We have six other guys with Shaheen, each posing a different kind of threat for the batters. Two top first-class performers, like Mir Hamza, who is a left-arm bowler, have also played some county cricket and played a couple of test matches. We have got Khurram Shahzad, who is the highest wicket-taker in our domestic season, and we thought that we could utilize somebody like Muhammad Wasim Junior, who can add a bit of pace, and if the ball does reverse at SCG, he will be quite handy. Aamir Jamal is an all-rounder that we are keeping an eye on. He has some good pace and hammers a good length, which might be very useful here. And we are hoping that Faheem Ashraf grows into the stroll and provides us something with the bat and something really good with the ball. So we have quite a lot of options, and hopefully we will see what we can bring out tomorrow, and that might reflect what we can go with in a test match."
"I haven't seen any drama personally. We are very well focused on the job that is in our hands. We got here and got a couple of days of rest, and we have been straight into practice. We have done some fitness work. For us, it is about what is in our control and our preparation, and we know that we are going against the world test champions in their own backyard, and it is going to be a challenging series, but it is an exciting opportunity for all of us to put our skills to the test and obviously take some points into our world test championship in this cycle as well."
"For us, it has mainly been jet lag and a bit of rain, but we have been lucky that we got a full day of practice yesterday. It's a beautiful place with beautiful ground and an ideal way to start a tour, and we are looking really forward to it. I think it is very important, especially given the nature of the game. It is a first-class fixture, and we are playing against a side that is very well-equipped. They have a lot of Australian internationals and a lot of people knocking on that Australian door, so probably it is an ideal way for us to start against the world test champions. It is hard naming people because I think they have a few internationals, but Cameron Green is one of them that is in 14; somebody to look out for. He has all the potential to be a world-class all-rounder, and we are looking forward to coming up against him. Obviously, we want to face him; you want to play the best, but again, given the nature of the game, it's a competitive first-class fixture, and we are looking forward to it."
"I think you are spot on; it's a four-day fixture, and we would like to manage some loads as well, so it might be possible that he might be resting some players that we feel have worked a lot in the recent past. But look, we have 18 players; we have 7 fast bowlers, probably giving us an ideal opportunity to test which combination we might be taking with us into Perth. And it will be a great test for the batters, having probably two innings in these four days. It will be a good test against a very good attack, and they will just try to get the best preparation out of it. Pace and bounce are obviously things that are given in Australia. We have been very fortunate that a lot of guys were part of the 2019 tour; some even came on the 2016 tour, which is sort of a replica of this series in terms of the fixture list except Perth and Brisbane being a switch, and we were lucky to play the T20 World Cup last year. I feel as a batter that those were testing conditions, but we still did a decent job as a batting unit, so there are a lot of guys who have experience, and it is the pace and bounce in Australia and their pace attack along with Nathan lyon that you want to get used to and you want to put a under pressure right from the word go because they have been dominating the world for a while."
"We are now looking to create an identity for ourselves as a cricket playing team. We will look to build a brand of cricket. This is an early stage. This is a great opportunity for us to execute our skills and show what we are capable of against the best team in the world. It's a step-by-step process. Tomorrow, we are playing a crucial match, we will know where we stand," he added.
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