Shaheen Afridi kicked out! Babar Azam reappointed as Pakistan captain ahead of T20 World Cup: Report

Babar Azam has reportedly been reinstated as Pakistan’s T20I captain ahead of the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2024. The right-handed batsman had stepped down as the captain of the team across all the formats after Pakistan’s poor performance in the ODI World Cup.

He was replaced by Shan Masood and Shaheen Afridi as the Test and T20I captains respectively. Afridi has led the team in one series so far, the five-match series in New Zealand. Pakistan ended up losing that series 1-4. Afridi failed to impress as a captain in the recently concluded PSL season as well, as his team Lahore Qalandars finished at the bottom of the points table.

According to reports, his days as Pakistan’s captain are all but over. The revamped selection committee recently recommended the names of Babar Azam as well as Mohammad Rizwan for Pakistan’s white-ball captain. The final call would be taken by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Mohsin Naqvi.

Babar Azam back as captain:

According to a report in Pakistani news outlet Geo News, the PCB has decided to bring back Babar Azam as the captain ahead of the T20 World Cup. The star batsman would replace Afridi for the forthcoming five-match T20 series against New Zealand.

Babar Azam was appointed the white-ball captain in 2019 and as Test skipper in 2020. Under his captaincy, Pakistan made it to the semifinal of the 2021 T20 World Cup before qualifying for the final in 2022. The Men in Green, however, failed to do well in the ODI World Cup last year and crashed out at the league stage.

The report further added that PCB has decided to have separate coaches for white-ball and red-ball teams. While they were in talks with former Australia allrounder Shane Watson, the talks eventually broke down.

As per the latest reports, former India head coach Gary Kirsten is in line to take charge of Pakistan’s white-ball teams while former Australia fast-bowler Jason Gillespie is the front-runner to become the Test coach. The PCB are expected to finalize the coaches soon.