Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Pakistan captain Shan Masood has cleared the air on a reported rift between him and star pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi after the hosts lost to Bangladesh in the second Test match on Tuesday (Sep 3). A video that went viral showed Shaheen shrugging off Shan in anger, highlighting the discontent between the players. However, Shan has now taken to the media and stated that it was an injury where Shan was touched that prompted Shaheen to shrug him off.

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Shan clears the air on Shaheen incident

"There’s nothing more to it," Masood stated, downplaying any suggestions of discord. I think there was an incident going around where I had put my hands on Shaheen's shoulder, and he had shrugged it off. He was not angry with me. He had got hit by Nahid Rana and I had touched that exact place," Masood said during the post-match press conference.

Another incident in the warm-up that went viral saw Shan lash out at Shaheen, but that too was miscommunication. According to the Pakistan captain, he was furious with head coach Jason Gillespie for using the old ball and not pointing out the pacer.

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Bangladesh embarrass Pakistan

Bangladesh inflicted an embarrassing whitewash on hosts Pakistan in the two-match Test series on Tuesday after a six-wicket win in Rawalpindi. Having already won the first Test by 10 wickets, Bangladesh won the second Test to register a historic series win. This is Bangladesh’s third series win on foreign soil having beaten West Indies in 2009 and then Zimbabwe in 2021. For Pakistan, this remains the lowest point in their Test cricket history with the 2-0 defeat against Bangladesh.

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With a draw required to win the series, Bangladesh went one better as they won the match by six wickets at the same venue. Having been 26/6 at one stage in the first innings, Bangladesh did well to get back into the match as they only trailed by 12 runs. Pakistan, however, were brought down to their knees in the second innings as they were bowled out for 172 runs, setting a 185-run target for the visitors to win.