‘He was not angry’ – Shan Masood clears air around Shaheen Afridi’s ‘shoulder shrug’ incident

Shan Masood. (Source – Twitter/X)

Pakistan captain Shan Masood addressed a couple of incidents involving himself and Shaheen Afridi from the recently concluded Test series against Bangladesh which had given rise to speculations of tension between the two senior statesmen.

One of the most talked-about incidents was a viral video showing the left-arm pacer seemingly shrugging off Masood’s hand during a mid-match team discussion. Masood spoke about the incident, clarifying that Afridi had removed his hand because the pacer had suffered an injury on the place.

“There’s nothing more to it. 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.

Also Read: Shan Masood addresses Babar Azam’s insipid Test form after embarrassing series defeat

‘After umpires replaced ball, I was arguing we needed better ball’ – Masood on rift with Gillespie

There was another incident where Shan Masood seemingly lashed out at Afridi after the latter had conceded a boundary. However, the former said that his reaction was directed at head coach, Jason Gillespie, for not using an older ball during the match, not at Afridi.

Also Read: Jason Gillespie backs skipper Masood amidst intense heat after Rawalpindi drubbing

“The next one was that I was angry at Jason Gillespie. But that was not the case. Our ball had gone into the stands after Litton hit a shot. That ball was 8 overs old. After the umpires replaced the ball, we noticed that it was much older, 18-19 overs old and I was arguing that we needed a better ball, and then I saw rumours of resignation, a rift with Shaheen. So we try to watch less social media during matches,” Masood added.

Afridi played the first Test, which Bangladesh won by 10 wickets. The 24-year-old picked up two wickets in the match and didn’t look anywhere close to his menacing best. Pakistan made a bold call and left their most experienced pacer out of their playing XI for the second and final Test. However, this didn’t help Pakistan’s cause as they suffered a six-wicket defeat to lose their first-ever Test series against Bangladesh.