But less than 24 hours from the side's departure to Australia, Masood chose to not see himself as that "sacrificial lamb".

"And as far as being qurbaani ka bakra (sacrificial lamb), the captaincy, playing as a player in the side, these are all temporary things at the end of the day. As long as you are in that place, or seat, you should relish the opportunity, enjoy it and try and take responsibility, and give your best ability to the team."

Despite an intermittent international career, Masood has built up some leadership experience along the way. He was captain of Multan Sultans in the PSL, led Derbyshire in the T20 Blast and, most significantly, led Yorkshire in the County Championship last season.

All three of their wins came under Masood's captaincy and he averaged 60 in the seven games he played, with two centuries and three half-centuries.

"I'm fortunate that I've had such opportunities along the way in my career. I've said before that when I became captain of Multan Sultans under Andy Flower, that was a big turning point in my career as a person and player.

"I look back and reflect on that whenever I go through ups and downs as an experience that has helped me as a cricketer. Then at Derbyshire and then the Yorkshire project which was quite a challenging one because of the stuff that was happening there. So, to take that captaincy along, off the field and on the field the issues gave me some experience and hopefully I can use that for Pakistan."

That intent is likely to continue in Australia, with the hope of more substantial scores.

"I played the England home series, and then New Zealand, and I personally understood my game is going one way," he said. "The way I played in first-class and county cricket, I wanted to do that in international cricket. I contributed to the team playing in the right way in Sri Lanka. I didn't make a big score, but if I can take those contributions towards bigger scores then it will be more impactful.

"Recently, I have only played domestic cricket and I'm quite satisfied how my season has gone. I played four matches in September in England, then in Pakistan, the One Day Cup as well, so you look at recent form, that is what you take with you. From that, I feel in a good space and hopefully can contribute big scores."