Younis Khan: “If not Babar Azam, who else should be the captain? That’s not Babar Azam’s fault. Neither this is the current selection committee’s fault. This is the fault of something that happened 5-6 years back”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan batting icon Younis Khan has questioned who can succeed Babar Azam as captain and thus feels that the 29-year-old is the only man for the job right now.
Azam’s future as captain remains unclear, especially after the 2024 T20 World Cup, where Pakistan were knocked out in the group stage.
Younis pointed out that the current situation Pakistan find themselves in is not Azam’s fault, nor that of the current selection committee.
The 46-year-old from Mardan noted that future captains should have been identified five to six years ago and groomed accordingly so that they would be able to take charge of the national team.
“We generally speak that Babar Azam should not be the captain. If not Babar Azam, who else should be the captain? That’s not Babar Azam’s fault. Neither this is the current selection committee’s fault. This is the fault of something that happened 5-6 years back. We should have built our bench strength,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Azam was Pakistan’s highest run-scorer in the T20 World Cup with 122 runs in four matches at an average of 40.66 and a strike-rate of 101.66.
The men in green began with consecutive losses to the United States of America and India before fighting back to take down Canada and Ireland.
Despite triumphing in their last two group stage games, Pakistan failed to make it 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