3 reasons why Pakistan resting Naseem Shah for 2nd Test vs Bangladesh is the wrong move

After rain washed out the opening day, Bangladesh captain Nazmul Shanto won the toss and opted to bowl first when Day 2 started. Bangladesh were forced to make a change as they brought in Taskin Ahmed who replaced Shoriful Islam, who was ruled out with a groin injury.

While this decision was largely on the cards, Pakistan made a rather surprising move when they rested Naseem Shah. Naseem had just made a comeback to red-ball cricket in the last match after a long injury layoff. His lack of match fitness was evident as he ended with 3 for 93 in 27 overs when Pakistan had to send down 168 overs.

Here we take a look at three reasons why Pakistan resting Naseem Shah for the second Test vs Bangladesh is the wrong move:

---

#3 Lack of experience in Pakistan bowling

Mir Hamza replaced Naseem Shah

Although Naseem was making a comeback to Test cricket after a long injury layoff, he is now an experienced bowler since he has been with Pakistan for a long time in white ball cricket. With Shaheen Shah Afridi already dropped, Pakistan now have a relatively inexperienced bowling attack.

Bangladesh showed their temperament in the last match as they batted Pakistan out of the game and now, with an inexperienced attack locking horns against them, they will be confident to dominate proceedings with the bat again on a track that really flattened out in the last match.

---

#2 Got overs under his belt

Naseem Shah slowly found his groove

Naseem Shah was slowly getting back into the groove in the last match and since he had already bowled 30.3 overs in the previous match, he got the overs in his legs and would have been a handy prospect on this Rawalpindi track that had a good grass covering on the eve of the first Test match.

With the series on the line, the decision to drop Naseem seems a bit baffling since Pakistan were short of a gallop in the first Test match. Interestingly, Naseem was not given an NOC by the Pakistan Cricket Board for playing in the Hundred since the board wanted him to be fit and always available for international matches.

---

#1 An assisting pitch

Naseem would have found assistance from the Rawalpindi surface

The pitch at Rawalpindi had a good covering of grass and it was forced to be under the covers for the entire first day. This made it a good toss for Bangladesh to win and bowl first and their pacers - Taskin Ahmed and Hasan Mahmud showed the importance of sticking to a line a length.

Pakistan would have missed a trick since Naseem, with overs under his belt, could have been a real handful on this surface as he gets the ball to move around when he gets some assistance off the pitch.

Naseem is still very raw in first-class cricket, let alone Test cricket, and at a time when he started working his way back into the side, it would have been advisable to play him in a match where the conditions would have been his ally.