Former Pakistan national team captain Shahid Afridi has criticised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for botching the captaincy selection for the Pakistan national team ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Shahid Afridi is of the opinion that the Pakistan Cricket Board should have retained Shaheen Afridi as captain for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
His views come after the Babar Azam-led Pakistan team was knocked out of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. The USA has knocked Pakistan out of the Super 8 qualifying round of Group A. The USA crushed Pakistan in their opening match in a thrilling match through a Super Over.
Later, Pakistan also lost to India, making it two straight defeats. Pakistan still had a slim chance of qualifying for the next round, but the USA’s clash with Ireland on Friday was scrapped. As a result, the USA got the one point needed to join India in the next round.
Pakistan, the finalists of the last edition, suffered a humiliating exit from the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Fans and pundits have once again targeted Babar Azam for his poor captaincy. Notably, Babar Azam also led the India team in the ODI World Cup last year and the team suffered miserable defeats against India and Afghanistan.
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Shahid Afridi blames PCB for Pakistan captaincy blunder
Former legendary all-rounder Shahid Afridi took to his YouTube channel to comment on the issue and criticised PCB for its blunder with the team’s captaincy ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Afridi believes the board should have retained Shaheen Afridi as captain till the end of the T20 World Cup 2024.
“If the decision on Shaheen’s captaincy had been taken and the Pakistan Cricket Board had declared that he would remain captain until the T20 World Cup, then in my opinion Babar Azam should have supported Shaheen there,” he said.
Afridi also believes that in such a scenario, Babar Azam would have backed Shaheen Afridi as T20I captain as the two have been playing together for a long time.
“He (Babar) should have said, ‘No, if you have made him, Shaheen, the captain, then we are ready to play under his leadership because Shaheen has been playing with me for a long time,'” he added.
“If he is made captain and the selection committee has made him captain, then I will support him and play under his captaincy. That is the attitude Babar should have taken. Babar’s respect would have increased tremendously as he has set an example with a remarkable decision,” Afridi added.
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Afridi says Babar Azam is not to blame for captaincy mistakes
Shahid Afridi also said that Babar Azam was not responsible for this as some of the selection committee said he was a bad captain and hence the selection committee should have tried Shaheen Afridi as the captain.
“But it was not Babar’s fault alone because part of the blame also lies with the selection committee as some of the selection committee had officially said that Babar did not know how to be a captain,” he further explained in his video.
Notably, Babar Azam relinquished his captaincy in all three formats after the ICC ODI World Cup last year. Later, Shaheen Afridi was selected as T20I captain and Shan Masood as Test captain under the Zaka Ashraf-led PCB.
However, Shaheen Afridi was sacked after the team’s 4-1 defeat in New Zealand in a T20I series. Later, the new PCB management under chairman Moshin Naqvi appointed Azam as the new captain for ODI and T20Is after PSL 2024. Hence, there have been a lot of captaincy changes in Pakistan cricket recently.