Pakistan Cricket Board set for three captains after Babar Azam’s resignation

Babar Azam decided to step down as the captain of the Pakistan team on Tuesday. The 29-year-old put out a statement stating his intention to do so. According to reports doing the rounds, the Pakistan cricket board had decided to go in with 3 separate captains for all formats. 

One source while speaking to the media revealed, “Mohammad Rizwan is the obvious choice for the white-ball captaincy given that, along with Babar, he is the only player who is an automatic selection in all formats of the game."

One different voice in the know also said, “Babar was captain in all three formats for more than three years, but Kirsten and the selectors have reservations over whether Rizwan could handle the workload in the coming months while also leading the side in ODIs and T20Is.”

Former Pakistan star slams Babar Azam 

Sikandar Bakht was on GEO News when he decided to slam Babar Azam for tendering his resignation late. The former star said, “Ab sharam ayi! As soon as our World Cup was over on 16th June because we had not qualified further, he should have resigned at the same time. The whole nation was saying that he should have resigned. But he was stubborn."

Former Pakistan star Sikandar Bakht also added, “Because his style was like this, he was king. His performance was not good, neither was theirs. Anyway, they should have seen that we are removed in two ways. I don't know what happened to him.”

The former Pakistan international also went onto say “He was told to resign. Look, we have three captains in our base. There are groups of three captains. One is Babar, another is Rizwan. They want to become captains. Shaheen want to become captain again. And there is also Shan Masood. Shan Masood lost five or six matches." 

The PCB in its statement said, “Although the PCB had backed Babar Azam as the white-ball captain, his decision to step down reflects his desire to focus more on making a greater impact as a player."

Earlier this year, Shaheen Afridi was given the captaincy for the T20 format. Pakistani board though controversially decided to remove the pacer after just one series. Babar Azam was once again given the captaincy of the team that failed to do go past the first round of T20 World Cup 2024.