PCB told to stick with Babar Azam as captain as Mohammad Hafeez makes shocking endorsement

Former Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez commented on Babar Azam continuing as Pakistan's captain despite the disappointing performances in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Mohammad Hafeez drew parallels to his own experience as a captain in 2014 when he was sacked after the poor T20 World Cup.

Babar Azam has been under scrutiny after the Men in Green's group-stage exit in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. The Pakistan team suffered losses to the United States of America (USA) and India in their first two games. They failed to finish in the top two of Group A despite winning their next two matches.

Babar Azam stated that he will leave the decision to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after the match against Ireland. Azam mentioned that he resumed captaincy upon the Pakistan Cricket Board's decision. The Pakistan skipper stated that any decision regarding his captaincy would be openly announced by him.

One Of The Backward Steps Take by PCB - Mohammad Hafeez

Speaking on the 'Club Prairie Fire' podcast with Michael Vaughan and Adam Gilchrist, Mohammad Hafeez criticized the management's tendency to blame captains for poor ICC tournament outcomes. Hafeez emphasized that captaincy decisions shouldn't be based solely on tournament results.

"I think this is unfortunate and one of the backward steps taken by most of the management in Pakistan. Whenever bad results come out from ICC events, they used to blame everything on the captain. I was one of those in 2014. I was captain of the Pakistan team in the ICC T20 World Cup."

"After the bad performance, we couldn't qualify for the semifinals, and they forgot what I did earlier. I was the most successful captain at that time, but they never thought about the process I brought in. In the World Cup, only one team wins and the rest lose," Hafeez said.

They Should Stick With It - Mohammad Hafeez

Mohammad Hafeez stated that the new management should support Babar Azam if they believe the 29-year-old is the right captain. Hafeez questioned the logic of changing their decision within a short span if they later doubted his leadership decisions.

"If Babar is the right person and the decision taken by the new management, I think they should stick with it. If they feel he's the right person and after two months they feel he's not the right man, then why did they take that decision earlier? I think this is not the right way to move forward," Hafeez added.

Babar Azam resigned as captain across all three formats of the game following Pakistan's disappointing performance in the 2023 ODI World Cup. However, PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi controversially reinstated him as the white-ball captain. Shaheen Afridi was sacked after he led the team in just one T20I series.

Pakistan is set to face Bangladesh next in August 2024 during a two-match Test series. Bangladesh will tour Pakistan as part of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023–2025 cycle.

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