Babar reveals extent of Masood injury after West Indies loss

Pakistan captain Babar Azam has revealed former skipper Shan Masood fractured his finger during the first ICC World Test Championship contest with the West Indies in Trinidad.

Masood hurt his finger while batting during the first innings of Pakistan's 90-run loss to the West Indies and was forced to drop down the order to No.8 in the second innings as Pakistan fell to their eighth straight Test loss away from home.

Babar was quizzed about Masood's drop down the order post-match and the Pakistan captain said the left-hander had fractured his finger.

"Yes, Shan Masood’s injury affected us because, unfortunately, his finger is fractured, so we definitely missed him," Babar confirmed.

"At the same time, when you’re facing the new ball, you have to survive the first 20 overs, build partnerships, and then, as the ball gets older, the pitch becomes easier to bat on. We couldn’t put together those partnerships."

Only Babar provided some brief resistance on Tuesday as Pakistan were skittled for just 120 in their second innings, with the experienced right-hander scoring his 32nd half-century in Tests only to run out of partners late as Jayden Seales (5/20) ran through the visitors' batting order.

The loss left Pakistan rooted to the bottom of the World Test Championship standings and Babar suggested it was their top order that had let the side down.

"We played good cricket in the last few days, but today we were not up to the mark as a batting unit," Babar said.

"The surface is good and we expected the new ball to move for which we were prepared ... but I think they bowled very well and used the conditions nicely.

"We’ll sit together and discuss these things because, while the result isn’t go our way, we can certainly address our mistakes. We’ll do our best to correct them and ensure we improve going forward."

While Seales was the star for the West Indies on the final day of the Test, it was fellow pacer Justin Greaves who claimed the Player of the Match award following his heroics with the ball during Pakistan's first innings when he created history with his first five-wicket haul in Tests with five consecutive wicket maidens.

Greaves also chipped in with another two scalps on Tuesday to help seal the result and further cement eighth place for the West Indies on the World Test Championship standings, with the right-armer suggesting he learnt plenty during the match when watching Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Abbas in action.

"We came in and tried to be just as disciplined as possible," Greaves said.

"I mimicked Mohammad Abbas' fuller lengths when he bowled against us in the first and second innings and it pretty much worked out for us."

The second Test between West Indies and Pakistan commences in Port of Spain on August 2.

Series schedule

First Test: West Indies won by 90 runs
Second Test: August 2-6, Port of Spain