Shan Masood

It was really a lacklustre show by the Pakistan cricket team against Bangladesh during their first Test at Rawalpindi. Though the Pakistan team was in the doldrums initially on day 1, their performance saw the valuable partnership of 240 runs between Saud Shakeel and Rizwan, which enabled them to declare their first innings at 448 for 6.

This was a foolish declaration, especially with a score of less than 550 in the first innings. In reply, the Bangladesh batsmen proved to be real tigers as they stitched valuable partnerships, along with their veteran wicket-keeper batsman, Mushfiqur Rahim to post a mammoth total of 565, thus gaining a vital first innings lead of 117, which proved to be costly.

Ironically, in their second innings, the Pakistani batsmen played recklessly to get bowled out for just 146. Bangladesh needed just 30 runs for victory, which they achieved without losing any wicket to win by 10 wickets and take a 1-0 lead in the Test series. It is a real blow for their Captain Babar Azam, who is under flak, right after their disastrous showing in the Asia Cup, followed by the ODI World Cup and the T-20 World Cup. We feel it was the overconfidence of the Pakistan team that was the cause of their defeat after defeat.

N. Mahadevan,

Chennai, India