Pakistan prioritise player management as Masood, Gillespie lead new era in Test cricket

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Pakistan's Test cricket is set to start a new chapter on 21 August, as they face Bangladesh under the new leadership of red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie and captain Shan Masood.

The two-match Test series against Bangladesh also signals the start of a busy red-ball schedule for Pakistan, with nine matches slated before January 2025.

After Bangladesh, Pakistan play England in October (three matches, home), South Africa over the New Year (two matches, away) and West Indies in January (two matches, home).

As Shan Masood highlighted on the PCB Podcast, the focus will be on managing player workloads while gradually integrating young talent into the demands of international cricket.

“I think the most exciting thing for us is we are playing nine Test matches in a space of 4-5 months. That doesn't happen in a year,” Masood said.

“A good year would be 7 Test matches. There will be years where we play 5-6 Test matches. So playing 9 Test matches in a row is what everyone is looking forward to, 7 of them being at home.

“Yes, there are certain all-format players, especially fast bowlers where you have to manage their workload. Like we had with Shaheen in Australia, he played two Test matches on the bounce and we had to rest him for the third one because we had a heavy schedule coming up for him as a player.:

“We will keep looking at that but the exciting stuff is that in our current squad, we have got six exciting fast bowlers. All six of them can make a claim in the Playing XI and all six offer something different.”

“We are equally confident that the ones that step in, the new guys like Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza or Mohammad Ali, even Aamir Jamal to an extent, when they can step in with Shaheen, Naseem or even if one of them isn't available, they all offer something that can win Pakistan games and pick those crucial 20 wickets.”

Jason Gillespie echoed Masood’s approach, emphasizing that throughout the upcoming calendar, the primary focus will be on prioritising Pakistan cricket.

“There are nine Test matches in the next four months. That's just Test cricket, there's domestic cricket, there's white-ball cricket in the 50-over format and T20, not just in Pakistan but all around the world,” Gillespie said.

“We've got multi-format players and we've got to look after them the best we can. The priority is representing Pakistan.”

The series against Bangladesh is part of the World Test Championship cycle, with Pakistan currently sitting in fifth place, holding a points percentage of 36.66.

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For Masood and Gillespie, the immediate priority will be to rejuvenate a team that hasn’t played Test cricket since their series against Australia in January and to make a concerted push for one of the top two spots in the World Test Championship standings.

“I think what you'll see is a group of players united, going out together,” Gillespie noted. “They'll all have big smiles on their faces. They'll go out and play positive cricket.

“We don't want to give away too many trade secrets but I think you will see a team that wants to go out and make Pakistan supporters very proud of how they go about their cricket. That's something that's really important to the players.”