Former Pakistani off-spinner Basit Ali has made startling claims that Mohammad Rizwan will take over the captaincy of the Pakistan team in red-ball cricket. Basit Ali has revealed the Pakistan Cricket Board’s new plans after the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
Babar Azam led the team in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 but the team had a humiliating performance in the tournament. The Men in Green lost to the United States in a shocking encounter that hurt the Pakistani fans. Later, they also lost to India as they failed to chase down a target of 120 runs in the match.
It is noteworthy that Babar Azam was nominated as the T20I captain just before the tournament. However, his tactics failed completely in all the matches and Pakistan could not even make it to the Super 8 round. Pakistan was the runner-up in the last edition.
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Mohammad Rizwan to replace Shan Masood as Pakistan captain: Basit Ali
Rizwan new captain 👀👀#MuhammadRizwan #Cricket #PakistanCricket image.twitter.com/gnFsEURSqK
– Urooj Jawed🇵🇰 (@uroojjawed12) July 3, 2024
Former Pakistan all-rounder Basit Ali has claimed that Mohammad Rizwan will be the new captain of the Pakistan team and will replace Shan Masood at the post.
“Pakistan team has started preparations for the upcoming Test series against Bangladesh which will witness two Tests. Also, Mohammad Rizwan will take over the leadership duties. He also added that the Pakistan Cricket Board will announce the decision soon,” Basit Ali said in the video shared on his YouTube channel.
Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan struggled with batting in World T20
Meanwhile, both Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan failed to deliver a standout performance at the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Though they were the leading scorers for the team, they could not lead the team to the Super 8 round of Group A.
However, they did manage to get one good hit in one match. Babar Azam had a strike rate of 106 in 4 games at the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. The right-handed batsman hit 44 against the USA in the opening game.
Later, he racked up 13 against India, 33 against Canada and 32* against Ireland. On the other hand, Mohammad Rizwan smashed 8, 33, 53 and 17 but had a low strike rate of 90+. Ahead of another tournament, PCB replaced Shaheen Afridi as the T20I captain and named Azam as the captain for the white-ball formats.
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Pakistan to face Bangladesh in two Tests in August
Pakistan will take on Bangladesh in two Test matches in August 2024. The two-match series is part of the 2023-25 ICC World Test Championship. Some Pakistan players are busy with the 2024 Lanka Premier League (LPL 2024) in Sri Lanka currently.
Shan Masood is the current captain of the Test side who lost the three-match series against Australia 3-0 in December last year. Now, they will be looking for a better performance against Bangladesh. The Men in Green are placed at the fifth spot in the WTC 2023-25 points table with 2 wins and 3 losses from 5 games.