Shahid Afridi: “I want Shaheen to focus on his own cricket. I always tried to keep Shaheen away from captaincy”
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Legendary power-hitter Shahid Afridi has revealed that he tried to keep his son-in-law Shaheen Shah Afridi away from the Pakistan captaincy.
His comments come after Shaheen was removed as Pakistan’s T20I captain after being in charge for only one series, which consisted of five matches against New Zealand in January 2024.
After the men in green lost that series 4-1, rumours started to surface about a potential change in leadership, with Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan’s names emerging as the frontrunners.
Ultimately, it was Azam who was appointed as limited overs captain, even though he stepped down from the leadership role in all three formats following the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Having seen what Shaheen went through, Shahid reiterated that he urged the 24-year-old to focus on maintaining his role as Pakistan’s pace spearhead rather than getting involved in the captaincy race.
“I want Shaheen to focus on his own cricket. I always tried to keep Shaheen away from captaincy,” he was quoted as saying by A Sports.
Shaheen recently captained the Lahore Qalandars in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL) and took 14 wickets in nine matches at an average of 22.14 and an economy rate of 8.61.
Pakistan’s next assignment will be a five-match T20I series against New Zealand in Rawalpindi and Lahore from April 18 to 27.
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