• Rashid Latif showed concern of removal of Afridi from captaincy.
• Latif criticized Babar Azam’s reappointment.
• Babar acknowledged poor bowling and fielding.

Rashid Latif, the former captain of Pakistan, has expressed his concern that the decision to remove Shaheen Afridi from the T20I captaincy has led to issues within the team.

His remarks were made following Ireland’s victory over Babar Azam’s team in the first T20I at the Clontarf Cricket Club, Dublin.

“The bowling has been letting Pakistan down since the tour of New Zealand. Since removing Shaheen from the captaincy, problems could be seen,” he stated on his YouTube channel.

In addition, he emphasized that Babar displayed his vulnerability after reassuming the captaincy.

“Shaheen was removed wrongly from the captaincy and when Babar was reappointed, he showed his weakness. Whoever has handed him the captaincy will definitely use him. The team would be from outside, players will be selected by somebody else and every other decision would be taken by someone else, nothing will change in Pakistan here,” he further elaborated.

Ireland managed to defeat Pakistan in T20Is, a feat they had only achieved once before in the shorter format, where the Green Shirts had come out on top.

It’s worth noting that Babar attributed the first T20I defeat to poor bowling and fielding.

During the post-match presentation, Babar admitted that the team failed to implement their strategies.

“We didn’t start well in the first 6 overs; the pitch was a bit two-paced and had some bounce. We recovered well after that and got 182 but I think 190 was a par score,” he commented.

“But I think we lost due to the bowling and fielding. We didn’t execute our plans and had some sloppy lapses in the field which cost us,” he concluded.

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