Babar Azam and Shan Masood denied captaincy as PCB announces Champions Cup squads

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the provisional squads for the Champions One-Day Cup 2024. In a huge surprise, Babar Azam and Shan Masood will not lead any of the five teams participating in the tournament.

It is to be noted that Babar Azam and Shan Masood are the captains of Pakistan's red-ball and white-ball teams respectively. However, both the players will participate as just as the specialist batters in this tournament.

Also read: "Handling Pakistan when Babar Azam isn't the captain isn't easy"- Ravichandran Ashwin on Shan Masood

Babar Azam and Shan Masood denied captaincy in Champions Cup One-Day Cup

Both Babar Azam and Shan Masood will play for Stallions under the leadership of young wicketkeeper Mohammad Haris. It was hugely surprising to see both of them in the same team but none of them getting the captaincy.

The PCB has announced the squads of the Champions One Day Cup along with captains🏏

📸: PCB #PakPassion #ChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/YdW0F8zGe9

— PakPassion.net (@PakPassion) September 6, 2024

M Rizwan to lead the Wolves! pic.twitter.com/tNMMKlcyHx

— PakPassion.net (@PakPassion) September 6, 2024

Who are the Captains of the teams?

Babar Azam is currently Pakistan's white-ball captain and he was expected to lead one of the teams. On the other hand, Babar's opening partner in T20Is Mohammad Rizwan has been appointed as the captain of the Wolves team.

Former Pakistan T20I captain and leading fast bowler of the country Shaheen Afridi will lead the Lions while the former vice-captain in white-ball cricket Shadab Khan is the captain of Panthers. Pakistan's Test vice-captain Saud Shakeel will be leading the Dolphins in this tournament.

According to the press release, the captains were appointed by the team mentors of the respective teams Misbah-ul-Haq (Wolves), Waqar Younis (Lions), Saqlain Mushtaq (Panthers), Shoaib Malik (Stallions), and Sarfaraz Ahmed (Dolphins). The PCB had appointed these mentors in order to help the budding cricketers during this stage.

The PCB had earlier announced that Champions Cup will be played in all the three formats. According to the board, it will help in producing quality cricketers for the country. Moreover, with the Champions Trophy to be played next month, the tournament will be a huge oppportunity for the players to make their presence felt.

Format of the Champions One-Day Cup

The Champions One-Day Cup will be played in a single-league format and will conclude with three play-off matches over the course of four days. The final will be played on September 29 (Sunday).

The tournament willl feature some of the top cricketers of the country which also includes some world-class international players. Wolves will be up against Panthers in the opening game of the tournament on September 12 (Thursday).

It is believed that the teams were selected by the team mentors through a proper draft process from a pool of 150 players. Before selecting this pool, the PCB had conducted fitness tests. Fitness of one of the primary selection criteria for the contracted players in domestic cricket.

Meanwhile, the centrally contracted players will undergo fitness tests in Faisalabad on September 7, 8, and 9. There are some centrally contracted players who are not part of any of the squads. Those players are Imad Wasim (unavailable), Mohammad Nawaz (personal reasons), Mohammad Wasim (undergoing rehabilitation), Arshad Iqbal, Hasan Ali, and Ihsanullah (injured).