Azhar Ali: “Shaheen Afridi isn’t the best choice as Pakistan’s T20I captain. The best choice for me is Mohammad Rizwan”
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Former Pakistan cricketer Azhar Ali believes wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan should replace left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi as T20I captain as he would be a better leader.
Azhar feels that Afridi “isn’t the best choice” for the job, even though he led the Lahore Qalandars to consecutive titles in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in 2022 and 2023.
Rizwan, on the other hand, leads the Multan Sultans and has guided them to four consecutive finals, out of which they won one in 2021.
Comparing the two players, Azhar reiterated his preference for Rizwan over Afridi.
“Shaheen Afridi isn’t the best choice as Pakistan’s T20I captain. The best choice for me is Mohammad Rizwan,” he was quoted as saying by Farid Khan on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In the 2024 PSL, Afridi took 14 wickets in nine matches at an average of 22.14 and an economy rate of 8.61.
As for Rizwan, he finished as the third-highest run-scorer with 407 runs in 12 games, which included four fifties, at an average of 33.91 and a strike-rate of 122.22.
Lahore Qalandars Squad for PSL 9: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Rassie van der Dussen, Haris Rauf, David Wiese, Sahibzada Farhan, Sikandar Raza, Abdullah Shafique, Zaman Khan, Mirza Tahir Baig, Mohammad Imran, Ahsan Hafeez, Dan Lawrence, Jahandad Khan, Syed Faridoun, Shai Hope, Kamran Ghulam, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Tayyab Abbas
Multan Sultans Squad for PSL 9: Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Iftikhar Ahmed, David Willey, Khushdil Shah, Usama Mir, Dawid Malan, Abbas Afridi, Reeza Hendricks, Tayyab Tahir, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Khan, Mohammad Ali, Faisal Akram, Yasir Khan, Chris Jordan, Aftab Ibrahim, Johnson Charles, Mohammad Shehzad
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