Jason Gillespie delivers shocking verdict on Shan Masood's captaincy after Test series loss to Bangladesh

Pakistan National Cricket Team red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie delivered a blunt verdict on the captaincy of Shan Masood after the conclusion of the two-match series against the Bangladesh National Cricket Team.

Shan Masood replaced Babar Azam as Test captain in late 2023, and so far, he has captained the team in two series. He started his stint as the full-time skipper in the series against the Australia National Cricket Team down under.

Under his leadership, Pakistan faced an embarrassing 360-run defeat against Pat Cummins & Co. in the series opener in Perth before losing the next two matches by 79 runs and 8 wickets in Melbourne and Sydney.

Then, Shan Masood recently led the team in his first home series against Bangladesh, and he failed to guide his team to victory. Pakistan faced a shock 10-wicket defeat in the first Test and a 6-wicket loss in the second Test to face a whitewash at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

His performances with the bat in the home matches against the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side were also underwhelming. Shan Masood scored 6 & 14 in the series-opening clash and delivered a slightly better performance in the second Test, registering scores of 57 & 28.

Pakistan's condition in the home Tests has been so miserable that they have been win-less for 1303 days, with their last home victory coming in early 2021.

Despite Shan Masood being on a 5-match losing streak, Jason Gillespie backed him, saying that he has done a good job as a captain and the reason behind Pakistan's losses has been poor team performances. He said, as quoted by Cricket Pakistan:

"Shan I feel has led the side very well. We just haven’t played well as a team and that’s the reality. We need to sharpen up on certain areas and we will sharpen up. I really want to back and believe in these players, they are good enough and have shown glimpses of how good we are. We just need to do it more often and consistently."

Shan Masood did third-class captaincy: Jason Gillespie defends Pakistan captain but Tanvir Ahmed launches an attack

Although Jason Gillespie backed the under-fire Masood, the former Pakistan National Cricket Team pacer Tanvir Ahmed ripped apart the red-ball captain, labeling his leadership as third-class.

"Babar k against bolney walon bolo ab shan masood ney third class captaincy ki ha (People who were criticizing Babar, now come forward and say Shan did third-class captaincy," the former Pakistani pacer wrote on X.

Babar k against bolney walon bolo ab shan masood ney third class captaincy ki ha

— Tanveer Says (@ImTanveerA) September 3, 2024

He also took a dig at Babar Azam's critics with a sarcastic post on X, saying that Azam was responsible for the defeat as he was facing Bangladesh alone and the rest of the players were enjoying the wedding.

"Buhat afsos howa ha pakistan team test series har gaye against bangladesh or ye sab babar azam ki waja say howa kyn k akela khail raha tha baqi sab shadi main aye hain (Disappointed with Pakistan team losing Test series against Bangladesh because of Babar Azam because he was playing alone against them and rest of the players had come to attend a wedding," he wrote in another post.

Buhat afsos howa ha pakistan team test series har gaye against bangladesh or ye sab babar azam ki waja say howa kyn k akela khail raha tha baqi sab shadi main aye hain

— Tanveer Says (@ImTanveerA) September 3, 2024