Shahid Afridi: “I always have been in favour of Mohammad Rizwan”
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Legendary all-rounder Shahid Afridi revealed that he always favoured wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan as Pakistan’s T20I captain.
His remarks come after left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is his son-in-law, replaced Babar Azam as captain in the shortest format.
Azam resigned from the leadership role after Pakistan’s elimination from the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Since Rizwan has been a reliable performer in T20Is and has won the Pakistan Super League (PSL) while captaining the Multan Sultans, Afridi reiterated that the 31-year-old from Peshawar was his first choice as T20I skipper.
“I always have been in favour of Mohammad Rizwan,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
In the World Cup, Rizwan scored 395 runs in nine matches, which included a century and a fifty, at an average of 65.83.
Pakistan won their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before falling to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Even though they bounced back to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they could not make it to the semi-finals.
The men in green ended their campaign in disappointing fashion as England thrashed them by 93 runs.
Rizwan, Shaheen and Azam are now featuring in the three-match Test series against Australia, where Pakistan find themselves 1-0 down after losing the first Test in Perth by 360 runs.
The second Test will get underway on December 26 in Melbourne.
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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