Pakistan spinner Sajid Khan has revealed that Azhar Mahmood had cried in front of them after their confidence-boosting Test series win over England recently. The 31-year-old disclosed that the reason for Mahmood's crying was that he regretted saying that Pakistan didn't have a good spinner.
With Pakistan losing consecutive Tests to Bangladesh and England to begin their home season, the hosts were under immense pressure. They made wholesale changes to the squad for the 2nd and 3rd Tests against England, dropping the likes of Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah. Sajid was one of the men recalled, playing an integral role with both bat and ball to lift Pakistan to a 2-1 series win.
During a talk show, Sajid, who had taken 19 scalps in four innings, revealed, as a video of the same surfaced on social media:
"Woh zyaada England mein rehte hain, County team ke saath coaching karte hain. Agar aap Pakistan mein rehte ho, aapko cheezon ka pata hota hai. Unke message ke khilaaf nahin hoon. Unhone hame dekha nahin tha, toh jab dekha toh appreciate bhi kiya, gale bhi lagaaya, roya bhi hai at the end of the series. Woh ro isliye rahe they kyunki, 'Maine jo cheez kahi thi, is tarah nahin kehna chahiye. Mujhe pata nahin tha ki is tarah ke spinner Pakistan mein hain.
(He mostly stays in England, coaching the County teams. If you're in Pakistan, you often know about things. I'm not against his message. When he saw us, he appreciated us, hugged us, and cried. He cried and said I shouldn't have said Pakistan don't have good spinners. I didn't know Pakistan have such spinners.)
Pakistan unlikely to reach World Test Championship final:
Even with the 2-1 series win over England, Pakistan are highly unlikely to reach the World Test Championship (WTC) final. Shan Masood and co. are currently at 7th with 33.33 percentage points and have series left against South Africa and West Indies.
Australia are the defending champions, having won it by beating India last year.
