Basit Ali: “Shaheen Afridi should be Pakistan’s captain”
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Former batsman Basit Ali believes Shaheen Shah Afridi should replace Babar Azam as Pakistan captain.
Afridi, the team’s pace spearhead, has gained a lot of leadership experience at the domestic level as he is in charge of the Lahore Qalandars during the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
Under his guidance, the Qalandars won the PSL for the second consecutive time this year.
Having shown that he is a skilled captain, Basit feels Pakistan need to pull the trigger and hand over the leadership duties to the 23-year-old in order to let Azam solely focus on his batting.
“Shaheen Afridi should be Pakistan’s captain,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Pakistan recently played three T20Is against Afghanistan in Sharjah, but lost 2-1. Both Azam and Afridi did not feature in the series as they were rested.
The men in green are now playing a limited overs series against New Zealand, where Azam has scored 111 runs in three T20Is, which includes a century, at an average of 55.50 and a strike-rate of 156.33.
As for Afridi, he has taken three wickets at an average of 23 and an economy rate of 6.90.
Pakistan are 2-1 up in the five-match T20I series, with the fourth match to be played on Thursday in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan squad for T20I series against New Zealand: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Ihsanullah, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood and Zaman Khan
Pakistan squad for ODI series against New Zealand:Â Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haris Sohail, Ihsanullah, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood and Usama Mir
Babar is very brilliant king for Pakistan no one can take place of babar Azam