Zaka Ashraf replies to Shahid Afridi’s suggestion of appointing Mohammad Rizwan as skipper

• Shahid Afridi suggested Mohammad Rizwan as white-ball captain.
• Ashraf defends removing Babar Azam due to pressure concerns.
• PCB explains Shaheen Afridi’s removal as T20 captain.

Zaka Ashraf, the former Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Management Committee, has responded to former captain Shahid Afridi’s suggestion of appointing Mohammad Rizwan as the white-ball captain of the national team.

Afridi has consistently stated that he recommended the wicketkeeper-batter for the captaincy in a meeting with Ashraf following Pakistan’s disappointing performance at the 2023 ODI World Cup.

However, Ashraf has now refuted Afridi’s assertion. “Shahid Afridi had not given me any advice to make Rizwan the captain,” he informed reporters in Lahore.

In the meantime, he described the decision to remove Shaheen Afridi as T20 captain as hasty and disclosed the rationale for removing Babar Azam as captain during his tenure.

“I offered to retain Babar Azam as the captain for red-ball cricket, but we wanted to appoint a new captain 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,” he added while extending his best wishes to Babar on his reappointment.

Remember, the PCB stated that removing Shaheen was “a strategic move aimed at ensuring player well-being and peak performance”.

“While Shaheen Afridi has undeniably proven himself as a star fast bowler, leading Pakistan’s pace attack over the years, the board recognises the importance of rotation and rest to maintain his peak performance. This decision aligns with board’s commitment to safeguarding the longevity of the players, especially fast bowlers given their injury timelines in the past two years,” the PCB added.

“Keeping in mind workload management, this decision is to ensure Pakistan main bowlers remain at the top of their game. The board does not want the national men’s team to run into injury crisis concerning the bowling resources as seen before the ICC T20 World Cup 2022, where Shaheen had to be closely looked after and ICC ODI Cricket World Cup 2023, where the team didn’t have the services of Naseem Shah.”

Last year, Shaheen replaced Azam as the T20I cricket captain and Shan Masood in Tests.

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