Babar Azam confronts PCB; denies leaving Pakistan captaincy despite shambolic T20 World Cup

Babar Azam, while speaking in a press conference last night, confirmed that he is not thinking of resigning Pakistan captaincy after the T20 World Cup 2024 exit. 

Yesterday at the Central Broward Regional Park in Florida, Pakistan played their final match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies. The Men in Green will not proceed to the Super 8s of the tournament as they failed to finish in the Top 2 of Group A, which is spearheaded by team India and co-hosts US.

Pakistan's tragic performance 

The Babar Azam-led Pakistani team, which were runners-up of the 2022 edition in Australia, were expected to at least proceed to the Super 8s. They were placed along with India, the USA, Ireland, and Canada. At first, it looked like the Green Army would not face any problem other than the Indian team but the reality was very different. 

In their opening match, Babar Azam and co. were handed a shocking loss by the USA, that too, in a Super Over. A few days later in New York, Pakistan lost to arch-rivals India despite being in a winning situation in most of the match. Their road to Super 8s had become difficult after that loss itself with the American team going through with Rohit Sharma's men. 

Following Pakistan's exit from the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, a lot of questions were raised against the captaincy of Babar Azam. There are echoes of Babar facing the captaincy axe with someone else set to take over after the World Cup just like it had happened after the 2023 ODI WC. 

Babar Azam admits he won't resign from captaincy himself   

After Pakistan's exit from the ICC Cricket World Cup last year in India, Babar Azam stepped down from the leadership role himself. It was seen as an ideal moment for him to quit captaincy with many believing that it would be good for Pakistan cricket. The PCB subsequently appointed Shaheen Afridi and Shan Masood as white-ball and red-ball captains. 

On his first T20I series as captain in New Zealand, Shaheen Afridi had suffered a 4-1 loss and just a few weeks later, the left-arm pacer was sacked. New PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi went on to re-appoint Babar Azam as the captain and since then, the Men in Green have lost more than they have won.

Yesterday in Florida, Babar Azam's side picked up a narrow victory against Ireland. After the match, Babar Azam was asked about his captaincy plans as to whether he will continue or not. In response, Babar stated that he should not have been re-appointed as the leader of the group in the first place back in April. 

Babar revealed that nothing has been discussed as of now and things will be decided once they get back home in front of the PCB.  

"When I left captaincy (previously), I felt that I shouldn't be captain anymore and announced it myself. When PCB gave it back, that was their decision. Now we'll go back and have a discussion about what all has happened here. If I leave captaincy again then I will inform everyone. For now, I haven't thought about it and the decision is up to PCB." - Azam told reporters.