Shan Masood speaking during a Post-Day 1 interview:
Start on Day 1:
“As a side, we speak about the requirement of the situation when you win the toss and bat first. We did well against Bangladesh in the first test when we lost three wickets, but Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel had a mammoth partnership. So, when Abdullah Shafique and I got together and the partnership reached 50 and then 100, we kept talking about how, if we could have that mammoth partnership, we could set this game up really well. We started thinking about how we could dictate the game with the bat. When you win the toss and elect to bat first, you can’t ask for more from the team.”
Abdullah Shafique’s inning:
“As a leader, there’s a responsibility to score runs, but we always emphasize the process and our way of playing. For me, the biggest satisfaction comes from Abdullah Shafique. We talked about a squad mentality and giving people consistent chances. Despite the pressure of not scoring runs in the last few test matches and losing his opening partner and still delivered a hundred. He’s only in his early 20s, which speaks volumes.”
“As a leader, it’s never been about me or my runs; it’s about how we can move forward as a team. The way we played, putting scoreboard pressure on them, running hard, and scoring at a run rate of 4.5-5 was crucial. If we had just tried to defend our way through the day, we wouldn’t have had 324 on the board.”
Declaration:
“We still have Mohammad Rizwan, Salman Ali Agha, and Aamer Jamal to come in, so we need to take it session by session. I think the way Saud Shakeel and Babar Azam played after getting set initially, after assessing the conditions, they were scoring quite freely once they got set in. The message to the batters would be to assess the conditions, be your best judge, and make sure that we’re scoring off any scoring opportunities we get.”