Shahid Afridi: “I am a big fan of Babar and so are many others. People criticised me for criticising Babar’s captaincy”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has revealed that he was verbally attacked for criticising Babar Azam’s captaincy.
Afridi had desperately wanted Azam to do well as captain throughout his three-year tenure, but admitted that the 29-year-old made numerous mistakes.
Azam ended up quitting as captain after the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he scored 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
“I am a big fan of Babar and so are many others. People criticised me for criticising Babar’s captaincy,” Afridi was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Pakistan won their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing four straight to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite fighting back to take down Bangladesh and New Zealand, they could not make it to the semi-finals.
To add insult to injury, the men in green lost their last group stage match against England by 93 runs.
Azam will now represent Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia, which begins on December 14 in Perth.
Pakistan Squad for Australia Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi