Pakistani Right handed Batter Babar Azam has been reappointed as Pakistan Captain for white-ball formats (ODI and T20I) of the Pakistan men’s cricket team.
Babar Azam was sacked by the PCB on November 2023 after Pakistan failed to qualify for the semifinal in the ODI World Cup in India. Zaka Ashraf was the chairman of PCB when Babar Azam was sacked. After Babar Azam got sacked from White Ball Cricket, Babar eventually stepped down from the Red Ball Cricket as well.
Pakistani Pacer Shaheen Afridi was appointed as the captain in T2OIs after Babar had been relieved of his duties. Shaheen Afridi had led Pakistan in just a 5-match T20 series in New Zealand. Pakistan had suffered a 4–1 series loss with the New Zealand. No official ODI Captain had been appointed by Pakistan Cricket Board after Babar had left from the Captaincy.
The reason behind sacking Shaheen Afridi is Pakistan losing faith in the Captaincy of Shaheen Afridi after his men lost 5 match T20 series in New Zealand by 4–1, also in PSL Lahore Qalandars ended up at the bottom of the table and won just one game out of 9 games while 1 match got abandoned without a ball being bowled.
After Babar Azam’s Appointment in White ball cricket, he will be seen leading Pakistan in a five-match T20I series at home against Pakistan in April and total of 12 T20I games . Babar will also lead Pakistan in the upcoming T20 World Cup scheduled in June in the USA and West Indies.
Pakistan Cricket Board had announced through their official X(formerly Twitter) handle about the appointment of Babar Azam as Captain in White ball cricket. Pakistan Cricket had mentioned “ Babar Azam appointed as white-ball captain. Following a unanimous recommendation from the PCB’s selection committee, Chairman PCB Mohsin Naqvi has appointed Babar Azam as white-ball (ODI and T20I) captain of the Pakistan men’s cricket team,” in their tweet sharing a 24 seconds video of Babar Azam and Mohsin Nvaqi (Chairman of PCB) where both seem to have a conversation.
In T20I captaincy, Babar had led Pakistan in Semi Final in 2021 and into the final in 2022 but got disappointing loss from England. Babar Azam stand second in the most successful Captain in T20I just beside Sarfaraz ahmad (Record of captain who had led pakistan in more than 35 T20I) Babar Azam ahad win percentage of almost 60% after leading his side to Victory 42 times in 71 games with 23 losses and 6 No Results.