Pakistan take 20 wickets and also learn to win differently as they set up a blueprint of sorts for matches ahead.
Masood’s 20-wicket masterplan pays off as Pakistan learn to win differently.
Twenty wickets. Since England handed his team a humiliating innings loss a year ago, Shan Masood, the skipper of Pakistan, has focused solely on the score, amassing the fourth-highest total in Test history. Masood claimed that it was the only way to win Test matches, thus Pakistan started creating spin tracks that would virtually ensure 20 wickets were lost.
Masood will take those wickets whichever they come, but it has changed the fortunes of Noman Ali and Sajid Khan, who have taken nearly all of those wickets in the last four home Test matches. Shaheen Afridi, who took advantage of the old, reversing ball, took four wickets in the innings, more than Pakistani speed bowlers have taken in the prior four home Tests combined, dominating the denouement to the first Test, which Pakistan won by 93 runs. It featured the last three, with Afridi trapping Kyle Verreynne and then destroying the stumps for the last two.
For Masood, this offered evidence that there was more than one way of breaking through on this surface. “It’s simple for me,” he said after the game. “Shaheen took four wickets [in the fourth innings]. He’s put in the effort and bowled extraordinarily well. He’s shown why he’s in the world’s best fast bowlers. On these pitches, fast bowlers don’t vanish, their role changes.
“The World Test Championship will not be played in uniform conditions; they will be played in different conditions against different teams. We can’t look at one Test and extrapolate to the next two years. We have to play in England and the West Indies with the Duke ball. Bangladesh beat us in seam-friendly conditions so maybe they’ll give us seaming conditions there too. Fast bowlers’ role is not being phased out; we’re expanding the ways we can win Test matches. That’s why we played two fast bowlers, and Shaheen showed us exactly how.”
Hasan Ali was also participating, and Pakistan thought there was enough in it for the quicks to field two of them in Lahore. Masood referred to them as “the best exponents of reverse swing in Pakistan” and said that they might continue using this combination for the second Test in Rawalpindi.
For the Pakistan captain, it was proof both of the strides he is convinced his side is making, as well as the notion that the toss does not decide the game. “Our focus has always been on how we’re improving as a side. Getting a result is a huge deal. We’ve taken a strong start in the WTC final, and we need to build on it.”