Pakistan Have Lost 12 Of Their Last 16 Tests. They Just Lost To Bangladesh Again. And Nobody Seems To Know How To Stop It.

 

There is a line that ESPNcricinfo — the most widely read cricket website in the world — published this week that stopped a lot of people in their tracks.

"The 1960s were wretched for Pakistan. The late 2000s awful. Right now might be worst of all."

Read that again. Not a social media account. Not an angry fan. ESPNcricinfo. The publication that covers cricket more carefully and more thoroughly than any other. And their verdict on Pakistan cricket in 2026 is that it might be the lowest point in the country's entire Test history.

It is a sentence that deserves to be taken seriously. Because the numbers behind it are not exaggerated. They are simply the record.

Since Shan Masood took over as Pakistan's Test captain in late 2023, Pakistan have won four matches and lost twelve in sixteen Tests. Twelve losses. In sixteen matches. A win percentage of 25 percent. The second-highest number of defeats for any Pakistan captain — and Masood has done it in far fewer matches than the only man ahead of him on that list.

They have been bowled out for 146 at home against Bangladesh. They lost a home series to England 3-0. They were whitewashed 3-0 in Australia. They lost in South Africa despite having the game in their hands multiple times. And last week, in Sylhet, they became the first Pakistan team in history to lose a Test series in Bangladesh — 2-0, the same scoreline that started all of this in Rawalpindi in 2024.

The same mistakes. The same collapses. The same post-match press conferences where the captain says the right things and nothing changes. That is the Pakistan Test cricket story of 2026. And it is getting harder and harder to find a reason to believe it is going to get better any time soon.