Shahid Afridi: “I wanted Babar to be on the list of top captains. He has been captaining for 3-4 years. During this period, there was never a sword hanging over his captaincy. We all supported him”
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Former interim chief selector Shahid Afridi said there was “never a sword hanging over” Babar Azam during his time as Pakistan captain.
Afridi pointed out that Azam was given three to four years to prove himself as an adept leader and received support from everyone.
The iconic big-hitter was eager to see the 29-year-old become one of Pakistan’s best-ever captains, but it was not to be as he ended up resigning from the leadership role after the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
“I wanted Babar to be on the list of top captains. He has been captaining for 3-4 years. During this period, there was never a sword hanging over his captaincy. We all supported him,” Afridi was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Azam amassed 320 runs in nine World Cup games, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
Pakistan kickstarted their campaign with successive wins over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before stumbling against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite fighting back to defeat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they were unable to book their spot in their semi-finals.
To add insult to injury, the men in green lost their final group stage game against England by 93 runs.
Azam will now represent Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia, which gets underway 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
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