Breaking: Babar Azam Replaces Azhar Ali As Pakistan's Test Captain

Babar Azam has been appointed as Pakistan’s Test captain, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Tuesday. The right-handed batsman has replaced Azhar Ali as the captain of the Test team. Babar Azam is already the captain of Pakistan’s T20I and ODI teams, having replaced Sarfaraz Ahmed last season.

In October last year, Azhar Ali had replaced Sarfaraz Ahmed as Pakistan’s Test captain. There were question marks over his captaincy ever since Pakistan returned from England after losing the three-match Test series. The former Pakistan ODI captain could not really deliver as a Test captain.

In his maiden Test series as captain which was in Australia, Pakistan had lost both the games by an innings. It was followed by wins over Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at home but another poor overseas series in England hurt his chances of retaining the captaincy.

Overall, Azhar captained Pakistan in nine Tests- winning 2 and losing 4 of them. In those 9 games, he made his runs at an average of 37 and scored with two centuries. He had struggled with his form in England too but had scored a fighting century in the third Test to help Pakistan save the rain-hit match.

PCB confirms new captain:

PCB, on Tuesday, confirmed the appointed of Babar Azam as the Test captain on its official Twitter handle. They also confirmed that the upcoming tour of New Zealand will be Babar Azam’s first assignment as Test captain.

“Babar Azam has been appointed as Pakistan Test captain, which now makes him the captain across all three formats. His first assignment will be to captain Pakistan in the ICC World Test Championship fixtures against New Zealand,” wrote PCB.

Babar Azam has been appointed as Pakistan Test captain, which now makes him the captain across all three formats. His first assignment will be to captain Pakistan in the ICC World Test Championship fixtures against New Zealand.https://t.co/sj1SS6vEqz pic.twitter.com/S7EDhaiR2N

— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) November 10, 2020

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