How A Secret Coach Helped Shan Masood Resurrect His Career
Shan Masood is a determined and driven individual. A degree in Management and Sport Sciences at Loughborough University, as well as a rise to the top of Pakistan cricket at the same time, underlined his all-round abilities, even if it meant having to miss lectures. Cricket soon took over for Masood, however, and he was touted as a talented young opening batsman who would perform well at the highest level.
After impressing in domestic cricket, the left-hander achieved a lifelong dream of making his Test debut on his 24th birthday against South Africa in 2013. He immediately had an influence early on with a knock of 75 in the first innings – a match which Masood has fond memories of. “Initially, I was nervous,” he recalls. “South Africa were the number one Test team in the world, they had the top two bowlers in the world in Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander. But what helped me was that I had experience on a Pakistan tour prior to that in Zimbabwe so I got the feeling of being in the Pakistan dressing room. I also got some runs in a practice match against the South Africans prior to that first Test, so I already had a bit experience of playing against the best team in the world, and the nerves had calmed down a little, which helped. I remember receiving some advice from my coach, Dav Whatmore, who told me just to watch the ball closely and play the game like you have before. Thankfully it paid off in that first innings.”
Masood’s path as a batsman since that impressive first knock has been an uneven one, to say the least. An uncertain rest of the series followed, as well as a period out of the side before returning to make his maiden Test hundred (125) in a thrilling record run chase to seal the series for Pakistan in Sri Lanka. It was a performance that certainly stood out for Masood. “That run-chase, along with my partnership (242) with my mentor Younis Khan, who also scored a hundred, as well as playing in that sort of situation was an absolute treat. It turned out to be a very significant knock for me and the country.”
The 27-year-old, born in Kuwait, knows only too well of the challenge that Test cricket brings and that “it is not a game for the faint-hearted” – something that became even more apparent during the tour of England last summer. The series, drawn 2-2, was a sparkling effort from the team, though Masood struggled, scoring just 71 runs from four innings at an average of 17.75. And despite positive early signs (a score of 62 in a warm-up match vs Somerset), Masood felt that wrong shot selection was the catalyst to his downfall.
“When I came into that series, including our two warm-up games against Somerset and Sussex, I felt in good nick. I thought I would have a really good time of it and finally stamp my authority on such big series. Playing in England is a huge thing for any aspiring Pakistani batsman. Unfortunately, things didn’t go to plan. I had the opportunities during the four innings. For example, I managed to bat through a difficult period in the second innings of the first Test, was on 24 and I got out playing a silly shot. Again, at Old Trafford, I got through a similar period in our first innings when the rest of the team was struggling on a track which was not the most natural for any Asian batsman. Yet in general, during that series, I kept making shot-selection errors, which was mainly trying to play a back-foot punch through the covers. But when you face quality bowlers in such conditions, it is difficult to execute such a shot. A better way would have been to leave or play more horizontal bat shots to those deliveries, which would have been less risky.”
James Anderson has proven to be a particular nemesis for Masood, dismissing him six times in eight innings in England and the UAE, though despite his issues against England’s premier fast bowler, Masood feels he can use it as a way of improving in the future. “When you look at the record (six dismissals vs Anderson), people are bound to say I had problems facing him, but Jimmy had been the number one Test bowler in the world for quite a while, along with Dale Steyn. He has got batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli out on a regular basis, so for a young man making his way in international cricket, I gave myself time. Nevertheless, apart from two dismissals when I got balls that I couldn’t do anything about, most of the wickets were down to me making silly, uncharacteristic mistakes. I will learn from it and make sure they will not happen again.”
After being replaced for the third Test against England by Sami Aslam, Masood reached a crossroads. A change had to be made. In order to get his career back on track, a new way of thinking had to come into the fold. Step forward, Gary Palmer. After playing first-class cricket for Somerset, Palmer is a coach who believes that an open stance prevents players from falling towards the offside. He is convinced that attention to detail on technique, as well as hitting hundreds of balls to implement the method and ‘build muscle memory’, is paramount to a batsman’s success. They are methods that former England captain Alastair Cook has benefitted from hugely since he began working with Palmer back in 2015. It proved to be an integral part of Cook’s resurgence in form.
Masood is a long-time admirer of Cook and after hearing of the success that was being made from the partnership with Palmer – the pair still work together – Masood decided to take a chance and use the former Somerset man as the help he needed in his aim to improve as a batsman. “I have always followed Cook with an interest,” revealed Masood. “He and Graeme Smith have probably been the best two opening batsmen of the recent era and have churned out runs in the toughest conditions. So after noticing and then reading about the changes Cook made under Gary (Palmer), I researched Gary’s unique ways of batting coaching. And considering the fact that in other sports, especially tennis, players hire private coaches all the time, so I thought ‘why not?’ and gave him a call.
“There were some technical changes I needed to make and I wanted to try something different and ‘out of the box’. During our first conversation, he told me what he thought was wrong with me and when I heard what he had to say and what he wanted me to do, I completely bought into it. Our first net session was three hours, a time we don’t usually practice all at once as players. It was physically and mentally demanding. And when I tried to get the hang of what he was trying to implement, it was something I was willing to take on. I then went back to domestic cricket and applied what I learned with Gary out into the middle.”
Palmer’s methods have proven to be successful with numerous amounts of batsmen from all levels of the game, not least Alastair Cook. His ‘ABC’ method (Alignment, Balance and Completion of shot) has proven to be popular throughout his coaching career. Palmer works privately with a number of professional and international cricketers and in addition, runs the ‘Palmer Cricket Academy’ for aspiring young cricketers.
Masood believes that Palmer stands out from other coaches for two reasons. “Gary bases his coaching around hours and hours of repetition. He gets you to bat for three hours – something I have not done before in a session.” The Pakistani batsman, along with his domestic team mates, particularly bought into Palmer’s theory of ‘four angles’ – a systematic and innovative session designed for technical perfection. “We practiced ‘four angles’ a lot,” continued Masood. “We worked on bowlers coming over the wicket with both inswing and outswing, and the same with round the wicket also. It was much more realistic, match-specific practice, which allowed me to have a set technique for every kind of situation in the game. So those are the two unique things about Gary: the repetition and his method of ‘four angles’.”
Even a man as modest as Masood believes that he has made positive technical changes under Palmer’s coaching. “Gary has made me open my stance up more, as well as stay more still at the crease so that I’m not on the move by the time the ball has been delivered, therefore reducing the chance of me being late on the ball. I also have a better flow to my bat swing now. It is not as rigid and robotic as it was before. It feels more natural now and has allowed me to play certain shots better than I could before.”
Those technical changes have allowed Masood to sparkle on the pitch in domestic cricket back home in Pakistan. During the recent Departmental One-Day cup, he finished the tournament with 420 runs for United Bank Limited. His average of 70 was the second best out of any batsman in the competition to play seven innings or over, behind only Ahmed Shehzad. Once again, it was only Shehzad who scored more hundreds than Masood’s two during that period. Masood also added another century (136) for Islamabad in Pakistan’s Regional One-Day cup.
Despite the strides made through Palmer’s guidance, however, Masood still feels he is ‘work in progress’ and prefers to look at his role-model Alastair Cook as the more completed student of his new coach. “Gary is a brilliant coach and if you want to measure someone, measure what Cook has been doing. Ever since he started working with Gary, you can see that he is hitting the ball better down the ground and he is scoring more fluently and quicker in Test matches also. He is actually the final product that people can associate with Gary Palmer – that’s why I went to Gary, having seen the way Cook changed his game.
“In terms of myself, the season did go well. I started to play a few more shots that I could not before and I started scoring quicker. Now I feel I am in better control of my game and I have a process. And as a batsman, the best thing is that I now have more options. That is what Gary has given me, because of the fact we worked more on technique. Now I can have different strategies and different ways of tackling different situations, due to the fact that I have a set base and I can trust my batting abilities much more.”
Palmer is a strong believer in a solid technique being key for all batsmen. He has a high standard of shot execution in a grooving environment with a real eye for technical perfection. He aims to spot and fix even the smallest of faults in a batsman’s game. However, he has never coached with an international side. Yet Masood believes that the former Somerset man, having worked with him over the past few months, could offer a lot to any side, if given the opportunity. “You have to be receptive enough to work with someone like Gary,” continued the opening batsman, who has played nine Tests so far. “He has the unique ability to be able to work with different kinds of individuals. I’m sure that, from a technical point of view, he will rectify any player’s errors. I’m also sure he would do a great job with whoever else he works with.”
As a result of taking his improvements with Palmer into the domestic game, Masood has been tipped to make a comeback to the Pakistan Test side for their upcoming tour of the West Indies. And given the inconsistent form of Pakistan’s top order during their recent series in Australia and New Zealand, the case for recalling the left-hander has become a credible one. Though Masood, regardless of a potential return to the Test arena, is ignoring the whispers and is focused solely on improving even more. “I don’t want to look at things like a comeback or regaining my place. The reason why is that I just want to make sure that every day I am getting better as a batsman, as a cricketer and as an individual. That is all I want to do.
“If I keep scoring runs, then I am sure people can’t ignore it and that is all I can do. I am never satisfied with what I have, even if I get a hundred or play well, I like to look at the things I have not done well and try to work on them – that is my aim. I consider myself as a student of the game I want to keep learning until the day I stop playing. Things are going well at the moment and I have now found a process that I have been able to trust and I just want to carry that on.
“If I keep working on what I am doing with the right people, the correct frame of mind and maximum effort, then I am sure things will turn around. The main goal is to make yourself a better player. Once you do that, then you are more likely to score runs, wherever you play. It’s all about making sure I have the self-belief, a high skill level and good physical fitness. If I combine those factors then I am sure a chance will come somewhere down the line.”
Indeed, that chance could well be on the horizon, and he has Gary Palmer to thank. Both Masood and Cook have reaped the rewards from taking a chance and working with a personal batting coach – a move that has generally been frowned upon in recent years. And you would be forgiven to think how much progress other international players would make by using help from the likes of Palmer. It certainly seems like a worthwhile move, and Masood is the latest player to prove so.
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: Remember Sarfaraz's purple patch? That seems to have happened in our previous life now. Lets wait for 10-15 innings before being sure.
