Shahid Afridi: “If the decision on Shaheen’s captaincy had been made and you (PCB) had stated that he will remain the captain till the [T20] World Cup, then I think Babar [Azam] should have supported Shaheen”
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Former Pakistan big-hitter Shahid Afridi believes limited overs captain Babar Azam “should have supported” left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi when he was T20I skipper.
Shaheen, who is Shahid’s son-in-law, was named T20I captain after Azam stepped down from the leadership role in all three formats in November 2023.
However, Shaheen’s run as captain didn’t last long at all as he only led the men in green in one series, which consisted of five T20Is against New Zealand in January 2024.
By March, Azam was reappointed as Pakistan’s limited overs captain and Shaheen’s tenure had come to an end.
Shahid admitted he was very disappointed with Azam as the 29-year-old should have told the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to let Shaheen continue leading Pakistan until the conclusion of the 2024 T20 World Cup.
“If the decision on Shaheen’s captaincy had been made and you (PCB) had stated that he will remain the captain till the [T20] World Cup, then I think Babar [Azam] should have supported Shaheen there and should have said that no, if you have made him (Shaheen) the captain, then we are ready to play under his captaincy because Shaheen has been playing with me for a long time. If he is made captain and the selection committee has made him the captain, then yes I will support him and play under his captaincy. This is the stance Babar should’ve taken. Babar’s respect would’ve increased greatly that he has set an example with a remarkable decision,” he said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
However, Shahid does not hold Azam fully responsible as he believes the selection committee should be blamed too as they backed Azam as captain despite some of them saying that he does not know how to lead properly.
“But this was not entirely the fault of Babar because some of the blame lies with the selection committee too since some of the selectors on record said that Babar doesn’t know how to do captaincy,” he said.
Azam recently captained Pakistan in the 2024 T20 World Cup and scored 122 runs in four matches at an average of 40.66 and a strike-rate of 101.66.
As for Shaheen, he took five wickets in four games at an average of 21 and an economy rate of 6.56.
Pakistan lost to the United States of America and India in the T20 World Cup before bouncing back to beat Canada and Ireland.
Despite triumphing in those two games, it was not enough to get them through to the Super Eights.
Pakistan Squad for 2024 T20 World Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan (wk), Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Abbas Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
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