Babar Azam Appointed As Captain Of The Pakistan ODI Team

Babar Azam, the No.1 ranked T20I batsman in the world and the captain of Pakistan in the shortest format of the game, has been appointed as the skipper of the Men in Green’s fifty-over outfit. The announcement comes after Pakistan Cricket Board [PCB] announced the central contract list on Wednesday.

Babar Azam, whose stock has grown by leap and bounds in the past 2-3 years was appointed the captain of the T20I team while opening batsman Azhar Ali was chosen to lead the Test outfit last October after Sarfaraz Ahmed was stripped from his leadership role in all the three formats following Pakistan’s 0-3 defeat to Sri Lanka in the T20I series on home soil.

With no One-day Internationals scheduled for the remainder of the 2019-20 season, the ODI captaincy’s status had remained unclear. The PCB, via press release, also added that Azhar Ali and Babar Azam will continue to lead the Test and T20I outfits.

Also Read: Babar Azam Will Definitely Be In The Top 5 Batsmen Of The Decade In The Next 5-10 Years: Tom Moody

Misbah Ul Haq ecstatic by the appointment of Babar Azam as ODI captain

Pakistan head coach + chief selector Misbah Ul-Haq congratulated both Azhar Ali and Babar Azam for getting extension in their captaincy stints. Misbah also hailed Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision of naming Babar as the captain of the 50-over team as he thinks that both Ali and Azam needed clarity on their future roles.

Misbah also hoped that both Azhar Ali and Babar Azam will now start looking towards building the respective sides for future challenges.

“I want to congratulate Azhar Ali and Babar Azam for getting captaincy extensions. This is absolutely the right decision as they also require certainty and clarity on their future roles,” said head coach Misbah-ul-Haq as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.

“I am sure they will now start looking to the future and start planning so that they can build sides that can perform at the expected levels.” he added.

Babar Azam will take over the captaincy of the ODI team at a time when Pakistan cricket is struggling to keep pace with the rest of the world in the 50-over format. Pakistan hasn’t won an ODI series against a top-ranked side since their 2-1 win over the Proteas way back in 2013.

It will be also interesting to see how Babar-the batsman- responds to the additional pressure of leading the 50-over team. The right-hander has been Pakistan’s best ODI batsman for some time and the Men in Green will hope that his batting does not get bog down with the additional responsibility.

Also Read; Babar Azam Lauds PCB For Conducting Online Sessions With Former Cricketers; Terms It As A Confidence Booster