"Pakistan have to win home Test matches" captain Shan Masood sets eyes on WTC final ahead of 1st PAK v BAN test

Shan Masood said Pakistan need to take 20 wickets consistently in order to win test matches.

Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood has asserted the importance of winning home test matches if they are to keep the hopes of reaching the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 final alive.

Pakistan are set to host Bangladesh for a two-match test series from August 21 to September 3. Both the matches will be played at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi.

Shan Masood took over the Pakistan test cricket team’s captaincy last year. In Masood’s debut test series as a skipper in Australia, Pakistan suffered a 3-0 defeat against the Australian cricket team.

Need to win test matches at home: Shan Masood ahead of first test vs Bangladesh

Ahead of the first test match, Masood said that the Pakistan team needs to win test matches at home. Notably, the Masood-led side will play as many as seven tests in their home season 2024-25.

“Look, I think, first of all. You want your fans and media to write good things about the team. That’s why one of our focuses is to play cricket everyone enjoys watching. It’s a result-oriented business at the end of the day. You have to have results on your mind,” Shan Masood said.

“And for us again, we have to look at our position in the World Test Championship. Yes, it was sixth and seventh before. Yes, we would like to obviously play the final this time. So if you want to play in the finals, we have to win our home Test matches. If we have to win that, we have to take 20 wickets consistently. And obviously, our batters should score enough and give the bowlers time to take those 20 wickets,” Masood added.

Masood further added that they want to play an exciting and watchable brand of test cricket while also getting results in their favour.

“I feel it’s about playing good and exciting cricket. Look, we all want Test cricket to be fun, Test cricket to be enjoyable, both for the fans and for us players. When we play Test cricket, we want to be excited about it and bring the same enthusiasm we do in any format. Our challenge is to get the right results, and also play a brand of cricket that is consistent and exciting to everyone,” he added.

Pakistan squad for firs test vs Bangladesh:

Shan Masood (c), Saud Shakeel (vc), Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Shaheen Afridi.

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