Shan Masood will stay on as Pakistan’s Test captain through the 2025-27 World Test Championship. The decision, confirmed on Tuesday evening, follows a meeting in Lahore between the opener, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi and newly appointed red-ball coach Azhar Mahmood.
A brief PCB release said Masood and Mahmood have been given “free hand” with the Test side. The board did not spell out precisely what that means, though both men sit outside the five-member selection panel – Aleem Dar, Aqib Javed, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali and Wahab Riaz – that will still pick the XI.
Masood’s position looked shaky after Pakistan ended the last WTC campaign rooted to the bottom. Nine defeats in 12 Tests under his watch raised predictable questions, and the batsman’s central contract was trimmed from category B to category D only last month. Coaching upheaval – Jason Gillespie’s short, prickly stint among others – hardly helped settle things.
Even so, the board has opted for continuity. One senior official, speaking quietly after the meeting, admitted the set-up “cannot keep re-starting every six months.” Stability, for once, is the buzzword.
Masood, 35, has flickered rather than blazed with the bat. Two sizeable hundreds – one against England in Karachi, another at Centurion – have nudged his average into the mid-30s, slightly higher when captaining than at any other point in his stop-start career. He has also moved back to opening after a long stretch at No. 3, a role that arguably suits his crisp off-side strokes.
Wins, though, have been elusive. Pakistan’s attack struggled for penetration on flat home surfaces and, away, the batting folded too often in seaming conditions. Mahmood, who inherits the bowling group, hinted last week that fresh pace options from the domestic circuit could be blooded before South Africa arrive in October.
That two-Test series will kick-off the new WTC cycle and offer an immediate gauge of whether the board’s show of faith holds water. The Proteas are defending champions; Pakistan cannot afford another slow start.
For now, at least, Masood looks relaxed. “Captaining your country is always a privilege,” he told local reporters in brief hallway comments, “but it also means fronting up when results hurt. I’m ready to do that again.”
Pakistan fans will hope a settled captain-coach partnership brings more than polite words this time.
