Babar Azam’s days as the white-ball captain of the Pakistan National Cricket Team are numbered as he is on the verge of being sacked from the post for the second time in his career.
Babar Azam had been sacked from the captaincy following Pakistan’s 2023 ODI World Cup debacle. However, a regime change at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), which saw the arrival of Mohsin Naqvi as chairman, led to Babar regaining the white-ball captaincy.
Since resuming his leadership role in white-ball cricket, Babar Azam has continued to fail both with the bat and as captain. Under his leadership, Pakistan faced an elimination in the league phase of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 and even lost a match against the United States of America.
According to Geo News, Babar Azam’s failure to be named as one of the captains for Pakistan’s Champions One-Day Cup tournament was an indication that he would soon be sacked as captain of the national team.
On Friday, PCB revealed the captains and provisional squads for the competition, with Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Haris and Saud Shakeel being chosen as the captains of the five teams.
Pakistan’s next assignment in white-ball cricket will be in November when they travel to Australia for a three-match ODI series and a three-match T20I series. Before the Australia tour, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will sack Babar Azam and appoint a new captain.
Mohammad Rizwan to replace Babar Azam
The favourite to replace Babar Azam as white-ball captain is star batsman and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan. According to the same report, he will initially take charge of the white-ball team only before eventually taking over the red-ball leadership from Shan Masood.
Moreover, discussions about leadership change have been going on in Pakistan for some time. Head white-ball coach Gary Kirsten had already spoken to board officials and Babar Azam about this issue in July.
Meanwhile, a different report in Cricket Pakistan claimed that Shan Masood left PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi very disappointed and that he will lose his red-ball captaincy to Mohammad Rizwan very soon.
It is noteworthy that Masood is yet to win a match since being appointed as the full-time Test captain of the team. Under his leadership, Pakistan suffered an embarrassing 360-run defeat against Pat Cummins and Co. in the series opener at Perth before losing the next two matches by 79 runs and 8 wickets at Melbourne and Sydney.
Pakistan then suffered a shock 10-wicket defeat in the first Test and a 6-wicket loss in the second Test against Bangladesh to face a drubbing at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Even though the Test team’s head coach Jason Gillespie has openly backed Masood to continue, the PCB officials are not in agreement with the coach.
Pakistan’s next task is a three-match Test series at home against the England National Cricket Team, and there is a different controversy surrounding that series as the PCB is still unsure of the venues for the matches due to ongoing construction work at the stadiums.
