In the aftermath of Babar Azam’s resignation, the PCB have appointed Shan Masood and Shaheen Shah Afridi as the next captains of Pakistan’s Test and T20I sides respectively.
Pakistan had an average performance in the 2023 World Cup, finishing in 5th place with 8 points from 9 matches. On November 15, four days after Pakistan’s final World Cup match, captain Babar Azam stepped down as captain not only in ODIs but in all three formats.
The Pakistan Cricket Board relieved Babar of his duties in both limited-overs formats but asked him to continue as captain in Test cricket. However, a statement from the governing body said Mr Babar had consulted his family and he had resigned from all three formats.
From 2021 to 2023, Babar led Pakistan in 20 Test matches and recorded 10 wins and 6 losses. He was already leading Pakistan in white-ball cricket before the pandemic and had led Pakistan to the finals of the 2022 T20 World Cup.
In the 43 ODIs played under Babar, Pakistan won 26 and lost 15. In his 71 T20Is, which is the most matches directed by a captain in Pakistan’s history, Pakistan beat him to 42 wins and 23 losses.
The PCB then appointed Babar’s successor. Shan Masood will lead the team in Test cricket while Shaheen Shah Afridi will be the next T20I captain. Shaheen was initially announced as white-ball captain, but social media posts supporting this appointment were quickly deleted. There are no ODIs of him scheduled for Pakistan in the next 12 months.
Presenting our captains 🇵🇰@shani_official has been appointed Test captain while @iShaheenAfridi will lead the T20I side. pic.twitter.com/wPSebUB60m
– Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) 15. November 2023
In 28 Test matches, Shan has scored 1,597 runs at a score of 28.51. This includes his third consecutive hundred in 2019/20 and his third consecutive duck in 2021/22. He oversaw Multan Sultans in the PSL, South Punjab in Pakistan cricket, and Derbyshire and Yorkshire in county cricket. Pakistan had appointed him vice-captain earlier this year, albeit in ODIs.
Shaheen led Lahore Qalandars to back-to-back PSL titles in 2022 and 2023. In the first of these titles, he becamethe youngest captain to win a franchise-based T20 league. Of his 52 T20Is, Shaheen has 64 wickets at 22.73 per wicket and 7.63 per over.
Notably, chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq also resigned during the World Cup, while bowling coach Morne Morkel resigned after the end of the World Cup.
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