Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood had cleared the air over the viral video which created controversy during the first Test. In the video Shaheen Afridi shrugs off Masood’s hand from his shoulder during a team huddle. Afridi faced the brunt of it as many claimed that there was rift between the two. However, after the series defeat against Bangladesh, Masood clarified that there is no animosity between the two and he had got in the area where he touched him on the shoulder.
"There’s nothing more to it," Masood said during the post-match press conference. "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.”
There were also speculations after a video surfaced where Masood is venting out his frustration in the dressing room. Masood clarified that he had an animated chat with head coach Jason Gillespie as the umpire had given them an older ball after Litton Das' shot went into the stands and the ball had to be replaced. The captain also said that he tries to stay away from social media to avoid rumours of rift between him and the left-arm pacer.
"The next one was that I was angry at Jason Gillepie. 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, rift with Shaheen. So we try to watch less social media during matches," Masood added.
Gillespie on why he dropped Afridi
The 24-year-old bagged a couple of wickets in the first Test and was dropped from the second Test. Left-arm pacer Mir Hamza replaced him in the side. Gillespie said that he has had a good conversation with Afridi. The pacer who became a father during the first Test went back to be with his family after the historic defeat in first Test.
"Shaheen missed out this game. I've had a good conversation with him. He certainly understands the thinking behind it. We are just looking at what our best combination is for the game, and this is the way we want to go," Gillespie said.
"Shaheen's been given some feedback. He has had an interesting last couple of weeks. He's just become a father and we saw an opportunity where he can be allowed to go be with his family as well. He is working on some things on his bowling to be as effective as he can be and he has been working well with Azhar Mahmood. We certainly want to see Shaheen at his very best as we have a lot of cricket moving forward and he is going to play a big role in that," he added.
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