Shan Masood has criticised his bowlers after suffering humiliation at the hands of England in the first Test of the series in Multan on Friday, October 11.
Masood mentioned that it wasn't "impossible" for Pakistan to take 20 wickets as England did it on the same placid surface which witnessed a run-fest.
"What England showed us is you can find a way. They took 20 wickets on this pitch, so you can't say it's impossible to take 20 wickets on this pitch," Masood was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo after the game in Multan. "We can't find the easy way out to those 20 wickets, because then we wouldn't have scored a huge first-innings score. You have to find a way as a team, and the formula of Test cricket is you can't win a Test without taking 20 wickets. That, and first-innings runs.
"We've repeated mistakes, by setting up the match and then letting those positions slip. When you score 550 and bat for two days, there's a human element where there is scoreboard pressure. If in these conditions you are to set up a game, you put up a big score. And then not let the team take too big a lead."
Masood downplayed the pitch debate and said that the wicket was the same for both sides and they also fielded the same combination but while the visitors found a way to succeed, Pakistan failed to penetrate into England's batting order.
"It was the same pitch for both sides, and both sides were similar - three pacers and two spinners," he said. "They found a way, and we didn't execute as well. Conditions change over the course of a Test, and we have to learn to find a way.
"We take the discussion of the pitch too seriously. You plan a pitch for your squad and your strategy, but you can't control every aspect of the pitch. The last Test we played here in 2022, that was a slightly different pitch. England's squad was different, as was ours. Here, we expected this pitch to break up very quickly. Maybe around the end of Day 2 and the start of Day 3. Which is why we tried to prolong the innings."
