Shahid Afridi: “I wanted to keep Shaheen away from the captaincy”
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Legendary big-hitting batsman Shahid Afridi admitted that he wanted Pakistan left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi kept “away from the captaincy.”
Shaheen, who is Shahid’s son-in-law, was recently named Pakistan’s T20I skipper after Babar Azam stepped down from the leadership role in all three formats.
With additional pressure now on the 23-year-old’s shoulders, Shahid conceded that he is worried about how Shaheen will perform going forward.
“I wanted to keep Shaheen away from the captaincy,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Pakistan recently featured in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup and started off by beating the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite ending their four-game losing streak with consecutive victories over Bangladesh and New Zealand, it was not enough to get them into the semi-finals.
To add insult to injury, the men in green lost their final group stage game against England by 93 runs.
Shaheen and Azam are now representing Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia.
Pakistan lost the first Test in Perth by 360 runs and will now look to bounce back in the second Test, which begins 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