Babar Azam insisted on leading in all formats, says former PCB chairman

Babar Azam's captaincy saga in Pakistan cricket has been one of the most dramatic affairs in the game of late. Initially a successful leader, he led Pakistan well in ODIs and T20Is. However, a disastrous 2023 World Cup exit put immense pressure on him and he was forced to resign from the position. Reports suggested that the then chairman, Zaka Ashraf's influence played a role. 

Following Babar's resignation, the PCB opted for a shake-up, appointing Shan Masood and Shaheen Afridi as Test and T20I captains respectively. This surprised many, leaving Babar, a star player, without the captain's armband. However, another twist came in recently as another new chairman, Mohsin Naqvi reappointed Babar Azam as captain for ODIs and T20Is.

"I suggested that he should focus..."

Now, an interesting revelation has come to the fore as Zaka Ashraf has claimed that when he relieved Babar of limited-overs captaincy, he wanted him to retain the mantle of the Test team, but Babar insisted on leading across all formats or none. Ashraf has also said that in turn, he advised Babar to concentrate on his batting as the pressures of leadership were getting to him.

"I offered to retain Babar Azam as the captain for red-ball cricket, but we wanted to appoint a new captain for white-ball cricket. He responded by stating that if he were to be replaced as captain in one format, he would rather step down from captaincy in all formats. Consequently, I suggested that he should focus on playing as a team member for Pakistan, as it was clear that he was finding it challenging to cope with the pressure of captaincy," Ashraf said in a recent interview with Cricketpakistan.pk. 

Babar Azam's captaincy return now piles pressure on him ahead of the T20 World Cup in West Indies and USA. It remains to be seen if he can replicate his past success and silence critics who doubted his leadership after the World Cup exit.