Pakistan captain Babar Azam has revealed that Shan Masood fractured his finger during the first Test against the West Indies in Trinidad, an injury that affected the team’s batting plans in their 90-run defeat.Masood picked up the injury while batting in the first innings and was forced to bat at No. 8 in the second innings. Pakistan were bowled out for just 120 as they slumped to their eighth straight away Test defeat, leaving them at the bottom of the ICC World Test Championship standings.“Yes, Shan Masood’s injury affected us because, unfortunately, his finger is fractured, so we definitely missed him,” Babar confirmed.He added, “At the same time, when you’re facing the new ball, you have to survive the first 20 overs, build partnerships, and then, as the ball gets older, the pitch becomes easier to bat on. We couldn’t put together those partnerships.”
Babar rues batting collapse
Babar scored a fighting half-century, but Pakistan’s batting line-up failed to support him as Jayden Seales claimed five wickets.“We played good cricket in the last few days, but today we were not up to the mark as a batting unit,” Babar said.“The surface is good and we expected the new ball to move for which we were prepared … but I think they bowled very well and used the conditions nicely. We’ll sit together and discuss these things because, while the result isn’t go our way, we can certainly address our mistakes. We’ll do our best to correct them and ensure we improve going forward,” he added.
Greaves shines for West Indies
Justin Greaves was named Player of the Match after taking his maiden five-wicket haul in the first innings before adding two more wickets in the second. He said, “We came in and tried to be just as disciplined as possible. I mimicked Mohammad Abbas’ fuller lengths when he bowled against us in the first and second innings and it pretty much worked out for us.”The second Test begins in Port of Spain on August 2.
