'We're playing our next Test after ten months' - Shan Masood wants Pakistan to play more Tests

Pakistan's Test captain Shan Masood asserted that they should play more Test matches, as he prepares his side for what is going to be a rare busy schedule of red-ball cricket.

Pakistan start an intense home season with a two-Test series against Bangladesh, beginning in Rawalpindi on Wednesday, August 21. They host five more Tests at home, against England and then West Indies, on either side of a two-Test tour of South Africa. To explain how rare this is, the last time Pakistan played more Tests in a season was over 25 years ago, in the 1998-99 season, when they played ten matches.

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The lack of Test matches has been a concern but the bigger worry has been the long gaps in between, something that has stagnated the development of the Test team. The Tests against Bangladesh will be Pakistan's first since the New Year's Test in Sydney earlier this year. Once they finish the series against the West Indies in January 2025, they are not scheduled to play any Tests until October against South Africa. Following the clash against the Proteas, the Asian giants will have to wait till March 2026 to don the whites as they have a series lined up against Bangladesh.

Masood argued that the stop-start nature of this scheduling has led to a gap between the big three of India, Australia and England and the other Full Members. West Indies red-ball skipper Kraigg Brathwaite had also spoken on similar lines after his team's recent 0-3 defeat against England.

"We need more Test cricket. We play a lot of domestic cricket, so I don't think we can blame that. We do play ten first-class matches minimum, and with the introduction of departmental cricket, some players ended up playing 16-17 first-class matches in a year," Masood said on the PCB podcast, in which he was interviewed alongside Test coach Jason Gillespie, by former cricketer and broadcaster Bazid Khan.

"For me, it's more about how we can get our team to play more Test matches. That comes down to scheduling, reducing the gaps, and ensuring we have consistent Test squads going forward. We're playing nine Test matches in four months, but we've also had to deal with an unfortunate calendar where we played in Australia, and then we're playing our next Test after ten months. These are challenges that Pakistan cricket needs to address going forward."

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Pakistan are placed at No. 5 on the World Test Championship (WTC) points table and will look to start their climb with solid performances in the series to come.