The Pakistan Test captain, Shan Masood, is currently busy playing in the County Championship. The 34-year-old has been leading Yorkshire in the County Championship Division two.
Shan, who was the top-scorer for Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup and scored lusty knocks against Australia in 2023/2024 Test series, has been making the rounds in the ongoing edition of the County.
In the recently concluded game against Northamptonshire, Masood scored 60 in the first innings and coupled it with the impressive and unbeaten knock of 131 runs off 152. Despite declaring the game at 264, Yorkshire’s bowlers could not bowl the opponent out and the match was drawn after a sensational 4-day play.
It is a fact that Shan couldn’t achieve desired results for his team despite valiant efforts, but he has been leading the side, up front, with his blade.
The Pakistani stalwart has scored 502 runs thus far, in 11 innings, maintaining the average of 50. The southpaw has also plundered two centuries in the Championship so far and one half-century.
It is not the first time the lanky batsman has featured in County cricket. In the 2022 edition, Shan featured for Derbyshire, a team led by Pakistan’s former coach Mickey Arthur.
Masood ended the season with staggering numbers, etching his name in the history. He scored 1074 runs for the side in just 13 innings, averaging 82, and moving the blade at a healthy strike rate of 76. He became the first Pakistani batsman to score more than 1000 runs in County cricket.
Besides Shan, Pakistan’s Mohammad Abbas, Zafar Gohar, Mir Hamza, Hasan Ali, and Aamir Jamal have been playing this season of County cricket.
Since his comeback in the national side in 2022, Masood has evolved his game. At times, he has shown his interest in the brand of cricket played by the English side, dubbed as “Bazball”.
Before the Pakistan and England Test series in 2022, Shan advocated and vouched for the brand of cricket played by Ben Stokes and his men.
‘The most important thing that England are doing right now is giving players backing. They’ve decided this is the way they want to play it. They decided that with their white-ball cricket in 2015 too.
‘In life, you have to take risks. If you don’t take risks, you probably stay in the same place.
‘Life evolves, this game evolves, and England have decided to be the pioneers of it by introducing levels that were previously unheard of’
During the Pakistan and Australia Test series, earlier in this year, Masood was praised for his aggressive captaincy, a style of captaincy that brought Pakistan closer to the winning line, however they failed to cross it.
Particularly, the wicket of Steve Smith in the Third Test which was taken by Mir Hamza and a funky field setup as the skipper brought Babar Azam at short mid-wicket, who took an easy catch off Hamza to dismiss the Australia’s veteran batsman.
If we look at the average and strike rate of Masood in the ongoing County edition, he has been striking at 78. The Pakistan batsman is inspired by the approach and perspective of “fearless play” and through his statement he desired to change the decorum of Test cricket, so that it becomes “enjoyable” for the spectators.
‘England has made people watch Test cricket and see what they’re doing differently. They’ve made it more entertaining and put the spark back in it.’
