Fakhar Zaman named Pakistan's white-ball captain on the 7th anniversary of 2017 Champions Trophy win

Former Pakistan batsman Younis Khan has given his approval to aggressive top-order batsman Fakhar Zaman to become the National team's new captain.

Younis Khan's comments came after the Pakistani team exited the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in USA and West Indies under Babar Azam's captaincy. Their departure was confirmed last week after USA's last group tie against Ireland got washed out and they were awarded with a point which meant that Pakistan cannot finish 2nd despite winning their last two group matches.

The Green Army's back-to-back losses in their first two group games against USA and India made their scenario to reach the Super 8s very difficult. Despite having a big hitter like Fakhar Zaman and talented seamers like Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi, Babar Azam was blamed for not making the most out of the squad he had.

But the most solid reason behind Pakistan's fall in the T20 WC was revealed by none other than Gary Kirsten, who became their head coach only last month. Kirsten exposed that they cannot be called as a team because of their disjointed unit and lack of supportiveness among the players themselves.

"There's no unity in Pakistan's team. They call it a team, but it isn't a team. They aren't supporting each other; everyone is separated, left and right. I've worked with many teams, but I've never seen such a situation." - Kirsten said.

Many former Pakistan cricketers have opined on the current situation. Former batsman Younis Khan has become the latest to come up with a suggestion to PCB with regards to Fakhar Zaman becoming the next captain.

What did Younis Khan say about Fakhar Zaman?

While speaking to a local Pakistani channel, Younis Khan backed Fakhar Zaman to replace Babar Azam as the captain of the Pakistan team. Khan was very vocal with his thoughts about Zaman having the ability to lead the National side as he has been a consistent performer of the team.

Younis Khan started off his statement of support for Fakhar Zaman by highlighting the latter sacrificing his batting position for a prolonged period of time. Khan was criticial about Babar Azam's management of the left-hand batter, who sometimes features at number 3 or 4.

Younis Khan asked as to why Fakhar Zaman cannot become the captain of the team and asked about what he has not done for the side. The Test cricket great spoke about Zaman's performances in the ODI World Cup last year in which he played only in 4 of the 9 league stage games at Hyderabad, Bengaluru and twice in Kolkata.

In those 4 games, Fakhar Zaman had a powerful impact, scoring a total of 220 runs including a Century against New Zealand and 81 versus Bangladesh.

"Fakhar Zaman has been sacrificing his place for a long time. Sometimes he plays at 3, sometimes at 4. Why can't Fakhar become the captain of the side isn’t he a performer? Didn’t he do well in the last 50-over World Cup? Who is that one player who gave us hope." - Younis Khan said.