Babar Azam Set To Become Pakistan's Test Captain Replacing Azhar Ali For New Zealand Tour

Pakistan’s limited-overs captain, Babar Azam is likely to be appointed the Test skipper replacing Azhar Ali. Babar is currently leading his country against Zimbabwe in a home ODI and T20I series.

Azhar Ali has captained Pakistan in nine Test- winning 2 and losing 4 of them. In the 9 games, Azhar Ali has captained, he has an average of 37 – less than his career average of 42 – with two centuries.

On the other hand, Babar Azam with the bat has been brilliant in the last couple of years. He averages 68 in the last two years. The right-hander has scored 4 hundreds combined in his last four series- including a 104 and a 97 in Australia.

Babar Azam is the unanimous choice: PCB

The Pakistan Cricket Board’s Board Of Governors (BOG) is expected to appoint Babar Azam as the skipper of the longer format for the tour to New Zealand. According to a report in The Times of India, a PCB source said that the decision to make the 26-year-old captain is unanimous and the top officials have also given their consent.

The source says that the motive behind making Babar the Test skipper is to have your best player at the helm in all three formats. This would give the right-hander ample time to settle in the permanent leadership role in all three formats, with two of the next three ICC events to happen in India.

Babar was given the T20I captaincy last year and ODI leadership this year from Sarfraz Ahmed after Pakistan couldn’t reach the semi-finals in the World Cup 2019.

According to a reprt in TOI, a PCB source said, “Babar is the unanimous choice to be appointed test captain and he has had discussions with top officials and given his consent to take up the challenge.

“The mantra behind wanting to make Babar test captain is that make your best player the captain.”

In their meeting to be scheduled for Monday, the BOG will also induct former superstar cricketer, Shahid Afridi, and women’s captain Sana Mir as its members.

The men in green won the ODI series by 2-1 against Zimbabwe and are leading the T20I series 2-0 with one game left. Pakistan will tour New Zealand for three T20Is starting 10th December, and two Tests commencing December 26th. The PCB will announce a 35 member contingent to travel to New Zealand.

Also Read: Varun Chakravarthy Doubtful For India’s Tour Of Australia: Reports