Watch: Shan Masood experiences Hardik Pandya treatment, fans chant 'hamara kaptaan kaisa ho, Babar Azam jaisa ho'

Pakistan National Cricket Team red-ball captain Shan Masood experienced a Hardik Pandya treatment as fans chanted for Babar Azam during the first Test of the two-match series between Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Masood was appointed as the captain of the Pakistan Test team after Babar Azam relinquished the captaincy across formats post-World Cup 2023 debacle. He first captained the side in a red-ball tour to Australia, and under his leadership, the team didn't perform well.

The Aussies outplayed Shan Masood's side in all three matches of the series, resulting in a humiliating whitewash.

Meanwhile, after a change in the Pakistan Cricket Board, they reappointed Babar Azam as the white-ball captain, sacked Shaheen Afridi, but retained Masood as the Test captain, showing faith in his leadership abilities.

However, the fans seem to disagree with the Pakistan Cricket Board, as they chanted for Babar to be reinstated as the red-ball skipper as well.

This happened during Day 3 of the first Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Friday, August 23.

The chants of 'Hamara kaptaan kaisa ho, Babar Azam jaisa ho (our captain should be like Babar Azam)," echoed throughout the stadium during the second session.

Watch: Fans Mock Shan Masood As They Erupt With 'Hamara Kaptaan Kaisa Ho, Babar Azam Jaisa Ho' Chants

'Hamara Kaptaan kaisa ho, Babar Azam jaisa ho"🥵#BabarAzam𓃵|#BabarAzam pic.twitter.com/lTFQCVL1hJ

— Babar Azam 56 (@BabarAzam_152) August 23, 2024

BABAR tery jaan nisar,
beshumar beshumar 💖 pic.twitter.com/OA5cWL7jAG

— Anas Tweets (@tweeets_by_anas) August 23, 2024

Notably, the treatment of Masood by fans was pretty similar to the one received by Hardik Pandya after he replaced Rohit Sharma as the captain of Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024.

Talking about the ongoing match, the pitch hasn't acted the way Pakistan would have liked after fielding an all-pace attack for the match. Before the first Test, Pakistan released Abrar Ahmed from the squad and announced that they would field an all-pace attack, indicating the pace-friendly nature of the surface.

However, so far, the pacers haven't been able to dominate the game, and batters have found run-scoring easy. Pakistan, after being down and out at 16/3, bounced back strong and posted a humongous total of 448/6d on the board.

Superstar wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan and vice-captain Saud Shakeel were the saviors for the Men In Green as they batted exceptionally and smashed terrific tons. Rizwan played a sensational innings of 171 runs while Shakeel smashed 141 runs.

After posting a big first-innings score, Pakistan have struggled to get wickets in the second innings, and at the end of the play on Day 3 the Bangla Tigers were at 316/5 and were trailing by 132 runs.

Speaking to the media after the third day's play, Pakistan coach Azhar Mahmood expressed disappointment over the performance of his bowling unit, saying that they were not disciplined enough and bowled bad balls. He said:

"We were not disciplined in the last 12 overs. We bowled too many bad balls in the last hour or so. I won't say that we have misread the pitch. I would say that the pitch didn't behave how we wanted it to."