On their tour of Australia, Masood wants Pakistan to change history.
2023.11.30 – With victories in both Tests against Sri Lanka, Pakistan leads the World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle, with India second and Australia third.
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s newly appointed captain, Shan Masood, set a lofty goal for the team’s upcoming tour of Australia: make history.sportzlanka.com
Pakistan has never won a Test series in 12 visits to Australia, with the south Asian side losing the last 14 five-day matches in a row.
Masood, 34, who took over as Test captain after Babar Azam relinquished the captaincy in all formats of cricket after Pakistan’s disastrous World Cup campaign, sees an opportunity.
“When you have not achieved something in history, you have an opportunity to change it,” he said ahead of the team’s departure at a news conference in Lahore.
“So we will make an effort to produce positive results for Pakistan and for the World Test championship.”
With victories in both Tests against Sri Lanka, Pakistan leads the World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle, with India second and Australia third.
However, Australia is riding high after winning the championship’s final cycle and the 50-over World Cup earlier this month.
The Test series begins on December 14 with the first match in Perth, followed by Melbourne (December 26-30) and Sydney (January 3-7).
Pakistan lost both Tests by an innings margin on their most recent tour, which Masood was a part of.
“We need to score 400 and then take 20 wickets,” Masood explained.
“We did not do that on our last tour in 2019, so that is the goal.”
Masood admitted that Australia would be confident.
“The positive thing will be to have the belief to play well, and all those playing contribute to give Australia some tough times.”
Masood insisted that the tourists had done their homework for this series.
“We tried to replicate the Australian conditions in our training camp in Rawalpindi, which has a bouncy pitch,” he told reporters.
He also praised the team’s new batting coach, former England captain Adam Hollioake, who now coaches in Australia.
“Teams hire people who have local knowledge, and he is an expert in Australian conditions, so his appointment will help us to apply ourselves in those conditions.”
He also predicted that his predecessor Azam would have a successful tour, saying that the team’s batting “will go around him.”
“We want to play the type of cricket that our fans enjoy — a good and fighting brand,” he went on to say.Pakisthan Cricket
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