Babar Azam Returns as Pakistan’s White-Ball Cricket Captain

Star cricketer Babar Azam has once again been chosen to lead Pakistan’s cricket team in white-ball matches, including One Day Internationals ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals T20Is. This decision was made by the Pakistan Cricket Board PCB ahead of the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand.

The PCB made this announcement on X (formerly Twitter), stating that Babar Azam’s appointment as captain was a unanimous recommendation from the PCB’s selection committee. This means everyone agreed it was a good idea for him to lead the team.

Before this, there were reports that Babar Azam wanted to be the captain in all three formats of the game: Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. However, he was only given the responsibility for white-ball cricket after discussions with the PCB.

Babar Azam had previously been removed from captaincy duties after the ICC World Cup in 2023. At that time, Shaheen Afridi was made captain for T20Is, and Shan Masood became the Test captain. But no one was announced as the ODI captain.

Read more: PCB Reappoints Babar Azam as Captain for Pakistan Cricket Team

The decision to replace Shaheen Afridi as T20I captain came after Pakistan lost a series against New Zealand in that format. Under his captaincy, Pakistan faced a defeat of 4-1.

In Test cricket, Pakistan played only one series under Shan Masood’s leadership against Australia in December 2023 and lost all three matches.


Read more: Stellar Performances in 2023 Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi Shine for Pakistan Cricket

Babar Azam has led Pakistan in five international tournaments so far, including the T20 World Cup in 2021 and 2022, Asia Cup in 2022 and 2023, and the World Cup in 2023. Unfortunately, Pakistan hasn’t won any ICC or Asia Cup titles under his leadership yet.