File photo of Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi© Twitter
A big change is about to happen in Pakistani cricket, according to a report in geo.tv. Babar Azam will be reappointed as the T20I captain of the Pakistan cricket team, while Shaheen Afridi’s tenure is all but over. Azam will captain Pakistan’s upcoming five-T20I series against New Zealand, starting April 18, sources told the Pakistani website. Babar Azam was earlier sacked as captain of the Pakistan cricket team after a disastrous campaign at the ICC ODI World Cup in India last year.
According to a report by news agency PTI, sources in the PCB think tank earlier said that the board had come to the conclusion that with no viable option available, Babar was the best choice to take charge again.
“The funny thing is that the powers that be seem to have lost confidence in the ability of Shan Masood and Shaheen Shah Afridi to lead the national side in Test and T20 formats with the change in the chairmanship of the board,” confided a source to.
The source added that what is interesting is that Babar is now showing some attitude.
“Feelers have been sent to Babar to find out if he is ready to take charge again and he has shown some reservations. Apparently he wants some assurances from the chairman,” the source added.
Babar was removed as captain in the white-ball format immediately after the World Cup when Zaka Ashraf was PCB chairman. He then chose to also step down as red ball captain.
Babar had held the position of captain in all formats since 2020, but poor performances in the Asia Cup and the World Cup led to his dismissal.
“Shaheen was seen as the savior of Pakistani cricket during Zaka’s time as T20 captain as he had won two finals for Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League. But he now seems to have fallen out of favor very quickly due to the changing of the guard in the board,” said another source.
Shaheen not only lost his first series as captain in New Zealand (1-4), but bounced back to see Qalandars finish bottom of the points table in the PSL this year.
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