Should Shan Masood retain his Test captaincy after back to back series defeats?

[mominsaigol]

I'll give my honest take on Shan. And I apologise to anyone who gets triggered by what I will say.

Here are the positives

Positives

1) He hasnt been that bad since hes arrived on the scene. since he became captain hes been avg 37 with a 64 sr. Credit to @DeadlyVenom For providing this, as I wasn't aware of these statistics so I won't take credit for it. This has made me change my perspective on him.

Yes a 37 abh is poor, it's bavuma level, however every other batter barring rizwam averages lesser then Shan. To top it off shan's sr has been the highest.

Hes mediocre beyond belief however one can't deny he's punching > his weight batting wise since a 28 avg batter averaging 37 with 64 sr and 2 150+ scores since captaincy isn't that bad. It's ironically > Saud, Babar and others.( Statistically speaking, otherwise saud's 100 vs England is > Shan's entire career)

2) When given good bowling resources he has won test games vs England. Unfair to critisize him for Australia and SA when every pk captain had been a bunny in said conditons.

3) Has made some positive changes like dropping Abdullah.

Negatives

1) Idc about aus, sa etc etc, but losing to Bangladesh at home is absolutely unforgivable. Shan could have won both games has his captaincy been better. I'll give him leeway for the 1st test but he became way too relaxed vs liton das in the 2nd test. Horrible and rubbish field settings cost pakistan the 2nd test and that's on Shan.

Das' wickst could have been taken no matter how crap the bowling is, if the field setting was aggressive. He should have forced das to loft rather then allowing easy singles and nullifying the lead.

2nd test is 100% on him.

2) While his batting hasn't been bad its still medicore and nothing special. Not a criticism solely on him as everyone is guilty of this, but it's still a valid talking point.

3) He's been pretty bad at taking drs reviews. Couldn't calm naseem down, hasn't really learnt to take a stand.

Overall he's not as bad as people are making him out to be, But he's still a poor performing nepo baby who's made horrible decisions on the field.

If I'm being brutally honest, as a captain he's > Babar and sarfaraz who were rubbish test captains but he isn't > Misbah or any other test captain before misbah, Excluding totally crap ones like Yousaf and fixers like butt.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

That has explanation has some legs but he chose not to play a spinner at Cape Town, he could have been creative at Centurion against the tail. For me his captaincy overall lacks any energy.

He is quite laid back and his face is just unfortunately naturally a bit gormless looking which doesn't help with perceptions of energy but he understands cricket ( despite his own career internstional performances).

I think overtime his captaincy could have improved under the direction of a good coach/strategist with long term vision.

As far as I know he doesn't have any say in selection at all ( happy to be corrected with this). Gillespie and Shan had their selection powers taken off them and handed to Aqib after they played 4 seamers against Bangladesh. Lo and Behold in true Pakistan circus style Aqib does the same thing after being handed the reigns.

I'm not absolving Shan of any blame but he been handed the wheel of a sinking ship and many are laying all the blame on him while allowing the PCB to escape without criticism on life rafts to safety.

 

[mominsaigol]

Those who religiously want to shove stats down your throat and also the scorecard analysts don’t really watch majority of a Test, at best maybe 20 overs in total. Can you believe that Rizwan is being praised for his batting in SA; they saw off Lunch nicely and went into the final session with the game in the balance, yes SA were still ahead but Pak had momentum again and a 150 lead was within reach with some sensible batting on a pitch which was still good. Then he plays that silly shot, mentally weak character, he looked for a way out. But we are being told he did a good job and is good at catching balls, basic stuff you expect from any Test standard keeper, like giving me credit for waking up on time for work.

Indian posters are the most guilty of this.

I guarantee you 90% of Indian posters here are probably teenagers pretending to be 40 year olds. It's dead obvious they started watching post 2019.

Only.a few like hitman are legit and you can tell their aged veterans of the game.

 

[emranabbas]

You can’t do anything with an awful attack. He could have rotated them more and not thrown the ball to AJ in the first test last over but these are minor things. The main point is that there wasn’t a decent bowler (seamer or spinner) to partner abbas

If he hadn’t handed the ball to AJ and the team ended up losing, the narrative would have been entirely different. People would have criticized him for not trusting AJ in a crucial moment, questioning his decision-making and leadership. However, since he did give the ball to AJ and things didn’t work out, the criticism is now focused on why he made that choice. It seems that no matter what decision is made, fans are always ready to find fault. You simply can’t win when it comes to pleasing Pakistan cricket fans.

 

[BouncerGuy]

This thread is not about Rizwan, as you guys can read. If you guys cannot read properly, let me know, and I will explain it to you.

Talk about Shan's captaincy future now

 

[ExpressPacer]

I'll give my honest take on Shan. And I apologise to anyone who gets triggered by what I will say.

Here are the positives

Positives

1) He hasnt been that bad since hes arrived on the scene. since he became captain hes been avg 37 with a 64 sr. Credit to @DeadlyVenom For providing this, as I wasn't aware of these statistics so I won't take credit for it. This has made me change my perspective on him.

Yes a 37 abh is poor, it's bavuma level, however every other batter barring rizwam averages lesser then Shan. To top it off shan's sr has been the highest.

Hes mediocre beyond belief however one can't deny he's punching > his weight batting wise since a 28 avg batter averaging 37 with 64 sr and 2 150+ scores since captaincy isn't that bad. It's ironically > Saud, Babar and others.( Statistically speaking, otherwise saud's 100 vs England is > Shan's entire career)

2) When given good bowling resources he has won test games vs England. Unfair to critisize him for Australia and SA when every pk captain had been a bunny in said conditons.

3) Has made some positive changes like dropping Abdullah.

Negatives

1) Idc about aus, sa etc etc, but losing to Bangladesh at home is absolutely unforgivable. Shan could have won both games has his captaincy been better. I'll give him leeway for the 1st test but he became way too relaxed vs liton das in the 2nd test. Horrible and rubbish field settings cost pakistan the 2nd test and that's on Shan.

Das' wickst could have been taken no matter how crap the bowling is, if the field setting was aggressive. He should have forced das to loft rather then allowing easy singles and nullifying the lead.

2nd test is 100% on him.

2) While his batting hasn't been bad its still medicore and nothing special. Not a criticism solely on him as everyone is guilty of this, but it's still a valid talking point.

3) He's been pretty bad at taking drs reviews. Couldn't calm naseem down, hasn't really learnt to take a stand.

Overall he's not as bad as people are making him out to be, But he's still a poor performing nepo baby who's made horrible decisions on the field.

If I'm being brutally honest, as a captain he's > Babar and sarfaraz who were rubbish test captains but he isn't > Misbah or any other test captain before misbah, Excluding totally crap ones like Yousaf and fixers like butt.

Good post. Shan is better than Babar or Rizwan as captain.

 

[RidiculousMan]

Some posters will probably have a heart attack if Rizwan is made the Test captain as well

 

[emranabbas]

Some posters will probably have a heart attack if Rizwan is made the Test captain as well

Rizwan needs to step up his performances if he wants to be considered for captaincy. If you take out the Bangladesh innings, his average drops to 30, while Shan Masood, since becoming captain, has been averaging over 40 minus bangladesh innings.



That’s a noticeable gap, especially for someone aspiring to lead the team.



Fans also need to decide what Rizwan’s primary role is batsman or wicketkeeper. If he’s considered a batsman first, then his poor batting performances have to be called out. But if he’s a wicketkeeper first, he should bat lower in the order, ideally after Agha Salman and Aamer Jamal.



Looking at the numbers (again, excluding the Bangladesh innings), Agha averages 40, while Rizwan and Jamal both sit at 30. These stats make it clear that his position and role in the team need to be reassessed.