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Although Shan Masood has received a lot of recognition
for his communication abilities throughout the course of his career, it seems
that nobody understood him Thursday afternoon in Sydney.
Aamer Jamal, the joint-leading wicket-taker in the
series, was not used by Pakistan during the morning after Australia was set 130
to win the last Test. Masood didn’t toss him the ball in the 20th over until
after midday, when Australia needed 33 to win with nine wickets remaining and
all hope eliminated from the match.
Mohammad Hafeez, the team director, seemed to take a
slight stand on the decision, stating that he thought Jamal ought to have
bowled sooner. He did, however, reiterate that Pakistan supported Masood’s
decision-making on the field and recognised the value of bowling offspin on a
track that was starting to take a lot of turn. Opening bowler Sajid Khan
claimed a wicket in his opening over and another shortly before Australia
completed an eight-wicket victory.
“It’s up to the captain,” Hafeez said after
the game, talking about the bowling plans. “All bowlers were available but
it’s the captain’s tactic. We wanted to bowl more from the offspinner because
this track can offer a lot from the far end but the rest is up to [Masood].
Tactically, I think Jamal should have bowled earlier, but inside the field, the
captain is the best judge so you have to back that up.”
Actually, the choice to ignore Jamal will be
remembered as an odd detail in a match where Pakistan’s lead had been blown in
various areas and stages of the contest, most notably in a crazy last hour on
the third day when they collapsed from 58 for 2 to 67 for 7. Particularly in
the previous two Tests, Pakistan often found themselves on the receiving end of
such kinds of fast-paced periods with enormous swings in momentum.
“We learned hard lessons,” Hafeez said.
“As a team, we had our moments but we couldn’t grab those. We perhaps
didn’t [deserve] 3-0, as a team I think we did some really good things this
series, but we couldn’t win the crucial moments of the game and that’s the
reason for the 3-0. We lost the series, but watching the talent of the players
is what made me say we could compete right from the start.
“We dropped some catches. Mitchell Marsh was
dropped by Saim Ayub. We didn’t drop catches, we dropped the winning moments of
the game. That is the negative side of our team: our fielding. We need to
really work hard on this. The coaches worked really hard on it but when the
players went inside they couldn’t respond accordingly. This is the one area I
believe we need to work on.”