PAK vs ENG: Shaheen Afridi breaks silence on PCB replacing him with Babar Azam as Pakistan captain

Pakistan's premier left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi has claimed that his job is to play Cricket for Pakistan when asked about his removal from T20 captaincy.

Earlier this year in January, Shaheen Afridi was appointed as Pakistan's new captain in the shortest format following Babar Azam's resignation. The star right-hand batter had relinquished the leadership role following the Green Army's humiliating exit from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 league stages.

The timeline of Shaheen Afridi's removal from captaincy

Pakistan had finished 5th in the table and were denied a chance to enter the knockouts for the 3rd time in a row at the 50-over World Cup. That led Babar Azam to resign from captaincy across all formats. While the ODI captain was not determined, Test captaincy was handed over to Shan Masood while Shaheen Afridi was made the T20 captain.

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In his first assignment as captain in New Zealand, Shaheen Afridi dealt with something a brand-new captain won't ever want to experience. After getting whitewashed in the 3-match Test series in Australia, Pakistan traveled to the land of Kiwis for a 5-match T20I series.

It took the Pakistani players 4 games to help Shaheen Afridi win his first game as the new skipper. The Blackcaps had hammered Pakistan by 4-1 in the series on January 2024. Just 2 months later in April, the Pakistan Cricket Board, after the arrival of new Chief Mohsin Naqvi, sacked Shaheen from T20I captaincy and re-appointed Babar Azam as the new white-ball captain.

Shan Masood was retained as the Test captain but Shaheen Afridi had to pay the ultimate price. The PCB had reasoned that they brought Babar Azam back as the captain because they felt that a batsman would be better suited to lead the team at the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

The abrupt decision of PCB sent a major shockwave in the cricketing fraternity and reports started to emerge that Babar and Shaheen are having an internal fight. Reports about their possible rift were in the air for a while but things seemed to have gone normal as of now. The Men in Green played 2 T20I series since Babar Azam was re-appointed against the Kiwis (2-2) and Ireland (2-1).

What did Shaheen Afridi say on his sacking?

While speaking in the PCB podcast, Shaheen Afridi compared the incident with a small argument in a family. He claimed that there were no indifferences within the team following the change in captaincy as every player helps the other player in the team.

Playing good cricket and bringing joy to Pakistan by winning matches is Shaheen's main motive instead of worrying about captaincy.

"Sometimes, small disagreements happen in every family, even among brothers. But there’s nothing like that in our team. Our players listen to each other, and we listen to them too. Our job is to play cricket and bring joy to our nation." - Shaheen Afridi said via PCB podcast.

Meanwhile, Babar Azam and Co. will be on display from May 22nd onwards when Pakistan visits England for a 4-match T20I series.