Shan Masood Becomes 1st Pakistan Captain To Lose His First 5 Test Matches

Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood created an unwanted record after his side suffered shocking defeats in the two Tests against Bangladesh at home. Pakistan went down by 10 wickets in the series opener played at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium last month, and in the second Test played at the same venue earlier this week, Pakistan lost the match by six wickets.

With these two back-to-back losses, Masood became the first Pakistani skipper in history to lose the first five Test matches. Shan, who was appointed as Pakistan’s Test captain last year in November after Babar Azam stepped down from his role, has earlier lost his first three Tests as captain against Australia in Australia.

Javed Burki is the only other Pakistani captain who failed to win any of his first five Test matches. However, unlike Shan, he lost four matches and played one draw. He was the captain of the Pakistani team that played a five-match Test series against England in 1962.

Masood is only the fourth Pakistani player who has led the national team in five or more Test matches without registering a single win. Under Burki’s captaincy, the Asian side lost four of their five Tests. In the 1977-78 season, Wasim Bari led Pakistan in six Tests, recording four draws and two defeats. Asif Iqbal replicated the unpleasant feat in the 1979-80 season.

Misbah-ul-Haq, who led Pakistan in a total of 56 Tests, is the most successful captain in the red-ball history of Men in Green. Under his leadership, Pakistan won 26 matches and also reached the No. 1 position in the ICC Test rankings.

Babar, who stepped down from leadership last year, served as Pakistan’s Test captain for two years and managed to win 10 out of 20 red-ball matches. With a win percentage of 50.00, Babar is only behind Rashid Latif (66.66), Waqar Younis (58.82), and Saleem Malik (58.33) in the list of most successful Test captains for Pakistan in terms of win percentage.

Shan, who failed to impress with his batting as well in the last five red-ball matches for Pakistan, is unlikely to remain at the helm, and it will be interesting to see who replaces him as Pakistan’s Test captain for the upcoming three-match Test series against England in October.