Pakistan coach for red-ball cricket Jason Gillespie has weighed in on the contentious decision of sidelining his strike bowlers Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah from the second Test against Bangladesh which subsequently cost Pakistan their maiden loss to Bangladesh after hosts won 2-0 series.
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Pakistan, however included a new pace trio of Mir Hamza, Khurram Shahzad and Mohammad Ali in second Test at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium resting Afridi as Naseem was dropped from the playing XI. This decision raised a few eyebrows and particularly after Pakistan got defeated by 6 wickets.
Gillespie had his defence ready: “We believed the bowling attack we went with was capable of doing a job. The strategy seemed to work when we had them 26/6, but they fought their way back into the game. By that point, the energy was not in the pick.
Defending the move, he said: “We considered the conditions and surface here and we thought it was an appropriate combination to take wickets on this pitch.”
Those were tactical mistakes that Pakistan made and once the early momentum was lost it all eventually boiled down to letting Bangladesh make history on their soil.
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