Pakistan suffered a 79-run defeat in the second Test of the three-match series against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on December 29.
The visitors fought valiantly but failed to stand in front of Australia’s pace attack as the hosts’ skipper Pat Cummins kept on rattling the stumps and sent the entire Pakistan side back to the pavilion for 237 runs during their chase of 317.
Former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir has now made a bold prediction regarding Test captain Shan Masood, who led his side with example as he was the only Pakistani batter to score a half-century in both innings, scoring 54 and 60 runs respectively.
“Hard luck to the Pakistan team. They played better cricket in this match. I think the team was having a very good chance to beat Australia in Australia," Amir wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
He expressed hope that Shan Masood would emerge as a "brilliant" captain for Pakistan.
“I must say Shan Masood is going to be a great captain for Pakistan,” he said.
Shan talked after the match, saying that there were positives and the team played the way he wanted to. He also talked about Mitchell Marsh, who was dropped on 20 by Abdullah Shafique and went on to score 96 runs.
"We have to look at the bigger picture. The smiles are that there are a lot of positives. We can easily be 'what if', but if you give a quality side like Australia sniff like we did, sometimes with the ball and with the bat and also in the field if you drop someone in form like Mitchell Marsh, we might not have been chasing [317] today, but in the bigger picture this is the way we want to play Test cricket,” Shan said.
Shan then appreciated his team’s effort as they did the best they could, especially the bowlers who took 20 wickets. He also lauded Cummins who proved why he is one of the best bowlers in the world.
“Fighting until the end and a result was possible for us. It's a reflection of four days, the game kept turning. Pat Cummins came in with that spell and that's why he's one of the best bowlers in the world. Then again with the bat, Steve Smith and Mitch Marsh's partnership.
“From our guys, we've taken 20 wickets which we haven't done in Australia for a while, that's a box ticked, in terms of runs everyone got good starts but against quality sides we want to get 100s. A lot to work on. But this is a blueprint."
Pakistan will play the last Test against Australia in Sydney, which will begin on January 3.
- Mohammad Amir