Babar Azam vs Shan Masood Test Matches Stats, Records:
The Pakistani cricket team's Test cricket situation is dire. They even lost a 0-2 series to a weaker Bangladesh team. Bangladesh achieved a clean sweep for the first time in their Test history against Pakistan. There are questions about Shan Masood, who was appointed captain with much fanfare, but has turned out to be ineffective.
Interestingly, Masood has fallen behind Babar Azam not just in leadership but also in Test cricket records. On
14 December, 2023
, Shan Masood took over as Test captain against Australia in Perth. Since then, he has captained Pakistan in five Test matches, losing all of them.
In Perth, Pakistan under Masood's leadership lost by 360 runs. In the second Test of the series, they were defeated by 79 runs in Melbourne. The third Test saw another loss by eight wickets against Australia, resulting in a 3-0 clean sweep loss in the Benaud-Qadir Trophy (2023/24). In this series, Masood scored 181 runs in three matches, whereas former captain Babar Azam managed 126 runs in the same number of games.
Bangladesh Series Clean Sweep
In the series completed on
3 September
against Bangladesh, Pakistan faced an embarrassing 0-2 loss, with both matches held in Rawalpindi. Bangladesh handed Pakistan a defeat by 10 wickets in the first Test. Pakistan declared their first innings at 448/6, but Bangladesh responded with 565 runs. Pakistan collapsed to 146 runs in their second innings, and Bangladesh chased down the 30-run target to win by 10 wickets.
In the second Test, Bangladesh's impressive performance led to another defeat for Pakistan, this time by six wickets. This marked the first instance of Bangladesh winning a Test series against Pakistan, having chased a target of 185 runs.
In this series, Masood failed as captain and could only score 105 runs with an average of 26.25 in two matches. On the other hand, former captain Babar Azam scored 64 runs in two Tests.
Who's the Better Captain: Babar or Shan?
Among Pakistan's most successful Test captains, Misbah-ul-Haq tops the list. Under his leadership, Pakistan played 56 matches between 2010 and 2017, winning 26, losing 19, and drawing 11. Imran Khan is second, having led Pakistan in 48 Tests, securing 14 wins, 8 losses, and 26 draws.
Babar Azam, who was stripped of Test captaincy, has a better record compared to Shan Masood. Babar led Pakistan in 20 Test matches, winning 10, losing 6, and drawing 4. Clearly, the high hopes pinned on Shan Masood replacing Babar Azam as Test captain have not been realized.
Shan Masood's International Career
35 Tests, 1883 runs, 28.53 average 9 ODIs, 163 runs, 18.11 average 19 T20s, 395 runs, 30.38 average
Babar Azam's International Career
54 Tests, 3962 runs, 44.51 average 117 ODIs, 5729 runs, 56.72 average 123 T20s, 4145 runs, 41.03 average
