Pakistan vs Bangladesh, 1st Test: Mohammad Rizwan falls short of double century, Saud Shakeel reveals the reason behind it

New Delhi: Pakistan made a strong start on the first day of the opening Test match against The Tigers, with Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan leading the charge with centuries. The team managed to put up an impressive first innings total of 448/6 on the board.

Shakeel smashed 141 in 261 balls. His composed knock consisted of nine well-placed fours and runs came at a strike rate of 54.02. While Shakeel was stumped on 141, Mohammad Rizwan stood on the pitch and remained unbeaten on 171 before Pakistan skipper Shan Masood decided to declare the innings.

The declaration of innings triggered a debate among the fans and experts, with many experts suggestions and wondering if Masood could’ve let Rizwan reach his double ton. The social media posts posted by fans seem like they see this as a controversy between Rizwan and the skipper due to the timing of the declaration of the innings.

The wicket-keeper batter’s teammate Saud Shakeel was also questioned about the timing of the declaration after the end of the innings, as Rizwan was just 29 runs short of a historic double-century. But Shakeel said that Mohammad Rizwan was informed of the timing of the declaration about an hour before. The decision, hence, wasn’t taken in a hurry.

Acc to Saud, there was no such thing and Rizwan was told 2 hours ago that we will declare around 450
Bahi tu kitna zaleel ho gapic.twitter.com/OgwHElMO6y https://t.co/clPlwdYmYD

— Hassan Abbasian (@HassanAbbasian) August 22, 2024

“See, as far as Rizwan bhai’s double century is concerned, I don’t think there was a haste in taking the decision (to declare the innings). Because Rizwan bhai was clearly told an hour before that we would be declaring at this point in time. So he had an idea when we would declare. He was told we will try to near 450 before declaring,” Shakeel said after the end of the second day’s play.

Many fans trolled Pakistan skipper Shan Masood for their disagreement with the declaration decision, saying Pakistan could’ve declared the innings after crossing the 500-run mark. That would’ve also allowed the wicket-keeper batter to reach his double ton.

On Day 2 in the 12 overs that Pakistan bowled, they failed to pick up a single wicket. The Tigers opening batters Shadam Islam and Zakir Hasan scored 12 and 11 runs respectively as the team total read 27/0 at stumps.