Babar Azam clears rumors about rift between him and Shaheen Afridi for Pakistan captaincy

Pakistan white-ball captain Babar Azam has made it clear that he has been long-time friends with teammate and left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi, who was recently sacked from T20 captaincy.

The Pakistan Cricket Board, after the arrival of new chief Mohsin Naqvi, decided to move on from Afridi as the limited overs skipper only after one series loss in New Zealand in January by 4-1.

This development had sparked rumors that Babar and Afridi are having a rift between each other but the former has cleared every rumor.

Last month, the PCB confirmed that Babar Azam has been reinstated as the captain of Pakistan's ODI and T20I teams, just 4 months after he had resigned from the role himself.

Babar relinquished captaincy right after the Green Army's embarrassing exit from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 as they finished in the 5th spot of the points table. It was the first time that Babar was captaining the team in an ODI WC but it did not go too well.

Following his resignation from captaincy, the PCB appointed Shan Masood as the Test captain and Shaheen Afridi as the T20 captain. Both Masood and Afridi suffered one-sided losses against Australia and New Zealand in their first assignment as captain.

While the Aussies whitewashed Pakistan 3-0 in the Test series, the Kiwis punched the Men in Green 4-1 in a 5-match T20I series. After that, all Pakistani players got busy playing BPL T20, ILT20, and then season 9 of PSL.

Right after the tournament ended, PCB went on to re-appoint Babar's captaincy with the thought of seeing him lead the team in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 and the 3 T20I series before the tournament. 

Babar Azam reveals his bonding with Shaheen Afridi is still very good 

While speaking to media reporters ahead of Pakistan's 1st T20I against New Zealand in Rawalpindi, Babar Azam claimed that his relationship with Shaheen Afridi goes a long way back. "I want to make clear that Shaheen [Afridi] and my bond is not recent, it goes back a long way." - Babar told reporters.

The 29-year-old further stated that both of them support each other in every single situation and that their main motive is to help Pakistan win games and then think about their glories. "We support each other in every situation. Our aim is to put Pakistan first, and how to put Pakistan's name up in lights. We don't think of individual glory, and thankfully, those elements are not present in my team." - Babar concluded.

Pakistan's full squad for the T20 series against New Zealand 

Babar Azam (c), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Amir, Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Usama Mir, Usman Khan (wk), Zaman Khan