The veteran Basit Ali said that Pakistan’s assistant coach Azhar Mahmood disrespected the Pakistan team by wearing his cap backwards in the press conference of the team’s ongoing Test series opener against Bangladesh. He also asked the cricketer-turned-coach not to repeat such
antics in the future as well.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Basit said: “Being a Pakistani, I did not like what Azhar Mahmood did. You have served Pakistan. I wouldn’t have said anything had any Australian done something like this. You are wearing Pakistan’s cap backwards in the press conference, please don’t do such things. Do you not like the star on Pakistan’s cap? The country has given so much. You may have a British passport, but please don’t repeat this.”

However, Pakistan registered 448/6 after being asked to bat first in the Rawalpindi Test. Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel were the top
scorers, scoring 171* and 141, respectively. In response, the Bangladeshi batters did a commendable job. They were bowled out for 565 as well. Veteran keeper-batter Mushfiqur Rahim scored a 191-run knock.

Speaking in the press conference, Azhar Mahmood said, “The reason we didn’t play a spinner was there was grass on the pitch and we thought it would favour the seamers. We were hoping for that. But the three hours the pitch was sunned before the game started on the first day may have made a difference. The wicket dried out; we didn’t think it would dry out so quickly, and that made it play differently.””Anyone who looked at the wicket would have thought it would be a seaming track. We can’t do anything about the fact it didn’t behave that way. We didn’t make a mistake reading the pitch, it just didn’t play like we thought it should.”