'I don't have an issue with the batting order' - Shan Masood opens up about Babar Azam's comments over his exclusion

Shan Masood’s absence from Pakistan’s ODI squad for West Indies series had got everyone talking, as the batter was backed by a great performances in County cricket. Masood has now opened up about his views on skipper Babar Azam’s comments on his exclusion. For the unversed, Babar had said that playing Masood in the middle order would be unfair to him as he is a top-order batter.

The 32-year-old was very consistent in his performances during the County Championship, as well as the T20 Blast while playing for Derbyshire, and thus his inclusion in the squad against West Indies was also backed by former skippers Inzamam-ul-Haq and Rashid Latif. But even then, he could not make it to the squad.

“I’ve said it earlier as well, I don’t have an issue with the batting order. An opener plays cricket in all the phases – he faces the new ball as well as the old and takes on both spinners and fast bowlers. If he stays till the end, he does the hitting as well. So, you can’t say that he doesn’t know how to bat in different roles. When I started playing domestic cricket, I played a lot of no.4. In the PSL, I played at no.3 when the team required. I played at no.3 in Tests as well,” Shan said in an interview with Cricket Pakistan.

I don’t believe that a position can define you: Masood

Masood feels that even though there have not been any instances of him playing at any other spot other than the top order, he believes that a  batter’s batting position should not be the factor to judge his performance in the game. He also added that he would be willing to play at any spot, given the requirements of his team.

“I talked to Mohammad Wasim and Mohammad Yousuf. I know there’s no evidence of me batting at other positions recently, but I don’t believe that a position can define you. When you look at the past, different batsmen have played different roles. You look at England, where batsmen keep shuffling in their positions,” he said.

“I don’t want to limit myself in a format, as well as at a position. If someone tells me that Pakistan requires you to play at a particular number, I will. I won’t blame anyone. Playing for Pakistan is the biggest thing at the end of the day,” Shan further added.

Meanwhile, Pakistan clinched the ODI series by 3-0, thereby handing West Indies a crushing defeat. Of the three games, the host’s finest performance came in the second ODI, wherein they won the game by a whopping 120 runs.