IMAGE: Pakistan captain Shaan Masood addresses the media after the completion of the first Test against Bangladesh. Photo: Pakistan Cricket / X

Pakistan captain Shan Masood on Sunday defended the decision to pick four bowlers and no specialist spinner for the first Test, which the hosts lost to Bangladesh by 10 wickets.

It was Pakistan’s first ever defeat against Bangladesh in a Test. Masood, who failed to bat in both innings, refused to admit it was a bad call to go in without a specialist spinner even after Shakib ul Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz shared seven wickets on the final day to bowl Pakistan out for just 146 runs .

“We had expected the pitch to offer more help to the seamers. When we looked at the pitch, we expected it to do more,” he said at the post-match conference.

“If we played 3 fast bowlers, we would push them to the limit and the spinner would bowl 25-30 overs a day, which we wanted to avoid.

“We thought with the weather it might not even last the full 5 days. At the end of the day, we were wrong,” he said.

Shan also said the decision to declare the first innings at 448 for six was taken to push for a result.

“We wanted to go for a win in the match and therefore felt we had enough runs on the board to declare. But the Bangladesh batsmen showed a lot of discipline and intent in their first innings. Mushfiq and Miraz batted really well,” he added.

“We felt with 448 runs we could have a crack at them in the fourth innings.”

“We could have done with more runs but there were also things with the ball and in the field that we could have done better to either take a lead or keep them level,” he said.

Chasing just 30 runs, openers Zakir Hasan and Shadman Islam guided Bangladesh to the target in 6.3 overs without losing a wicket.

Pakistan, who started the day on 65 for 2, rampaged against Bangladesh’s spinners, losing their last eight wickets for just 81 runs.

The Pakistan skipper admitted it was not the perfect start to the home season where the team had to play a total of seven Tests at home and two away in South Africa.

“We just have to get everything right now and try to level the series in the Test World Cup,” he said.

Sunday’s defeat was Shan’s fourth straight defeat as captain following Pakistan’s 0-3 whitewash at the hands of Australia last winter.