Pakistan cricket has never been short of on-field characters, may it be the over-animated yet skilled Javed Miandad, who although prolific to end, would not back down for a war of words (or actions, just ask Kiran More and a few others), or Sarfraz Ahmed’s crude yet crafty style of batting and captaincy that led him to multi ICC tournament wins or explosive yet controversial charades of Shahid Afridi over the first two decades of the 21st century.
Amidst all the chaos lies a rather sedate character like Shan Masood. Born in a somewhat privileged family, Shan is far from the archetype of a standard Pakistani cricketer. Unlike most of the Pak cricketers who usually abandon their studies in favour of pursuing their cricket dreams, Shan Masood is a rather fulfilled scholar, having completed schooling at the prestigious Stamford School in Lincolnshire and further at Durham University and Loughborough University.
The general environment at cricket in the subcontinent is often not meant for the subdued and well-minded nature of Masood’s kind, and understandably so, Masood has taken his sweet time to make it from the First-Class system to the Pakistan test team, only having played 33 tests for Pakistan from 2013 to 2023.
If the weight of criticism and a rather humble red-ball batting record wasn’t already quite a heavy one to carry, the captaincy of the red-ball team too has now fallen onto Shan Masood’s rather enterprising shoulders. His not-so-flattering red ball record is obviously putting in the firing line for the good old angry fans who don’t take too kindly to anyone replacing their favourite.
But Shan has been a bit of a unique character. Might not be as elegant or technically sound batter as his younger comrades, but his 52 off 42 against India at MCG in the T20 World Cup 2022 was the sign of the kind of fight and grit he brings to the table, surviving an opening spell of swing, bounce and chaos from Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, shepherding the tail to help take the score from 120/7 to a respectable 159/8.
On the same venue in the all-important final against England, Shan would again top score with 38 off 28 while the wickets fell around him and the score could not get moving.
“It’s the Pakistan way”, the term he used when Pakistan scored a 2-0 test series win over Sri Lanka where they adopted this far more aggressive approach in batting, Shan himself paving the way with 39 off 30 in the first test and a quick fire 51 in the second with Pakistan scoring at a scoring rate of almost 4 runs per over.
His stern test as a captain arrived down under in the form of a test series against the Aussie, where after the morale-crushing defeat worth 360 runs that also saw Pakistan collapse to 89 all-out in the 4th innings. At Melbourne, though, things had already changed a lot, as Masood himself showed a lot of signs of positivity.
His aggressive fieldsets were instrumental in keeping Australia down to just 318 in the first innings, and his twin 50s at a rather good clip with the bat that at one point meant Australia were pretty close to their first home test defeat against Pakistan in almost 29 years.
Shan has been a bit of the fall guy for Pakistan cricket recently. Between all the colourful on-field characters and dismissive administrators, Masood has had a tough job of being the middle man who has to tackle media, fan outrages and press conferences amidst the chaotic Pakistan set-up.
His plight almost reminds one of the character named Babu Bisleri from the 2003 movie Hungama, a funny and smart worker who, even though always troubled by the happenings of the welcome lodge that is Pakistan cricket, is always striving to do what’s best for business.