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Did Babar Azam Plan Shaheen Afridi's Removal As Pakistan Captain? Journalist Claims Betrayal

Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi in Pakistan's jersey (X.com)Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi in Pakistan's jersey (X.com)

The debate around Pakistan's captaincy is getting heated with each passing day. Pakistan Cricket Board has chopped and changed quite a lot in recent times, not only their captains but also support staff and that has created instability in Pakistan cricket. The national team's poor performance across formats has also triggered criticism and one of the hot topics of discussion in Pakistan cricket circles in Shaheen Afridi's removal as captain after just one bad series.

Shaheen Afridi was named as captain for the T20I series against New Zealand, which Pakistan lost by a 4-1 margin, and was surprisingly removed as captain with selectors deciding to go back to Babar Azam. The move did not work as Pakistan got eliminated in the group stage of the T20 World Cup 2024, and throughout the tournament, there were claims that not all was well between Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi.

Qadir Khawaja Accuses Babar Azam Of Betraying Shaheen Afridi

Now, a journalist named Qadir Khawaja of Samma TV in Pakistan has claimed that Shaheen Afridi was willing to give up his captaincy to Babar Azam and even asked the batter about it. The journalist added that when Shaheen Afridi asked Babar whether he wanted to take the captaincy or not, the star batter assured Shaheen that he had no such ambitions, which kept the fast bowler in false hopes that Babar Azam was alongside him.

However, according to Qadir, Babar Azam knew that he was going to be made captain, but Shaheen Afridi was left unaware of it and then completely caught off-guard when the selectors removed him as skipper. The journalist also added that the talk happened between the two during the camp in Kakul, and another member of Pakistan's team management kept Shaheen in the dark and assured him that he would remain the captain of the side.

Confusion In Pakistan Cricket And Shaheen Afridi's Probable Return As Captain

The journalist, though, ended his remarks on an interesting note, trying to balance things out a bit by stating that Babar might not be aware of the developments happening backdoor. So, whether the claims from Qadir are completely authentic or not is quite questionable, but it is clear that the captaincy saga has created a lot of confusion in Pakistan cricket.

Also, the move to bring back Babar Azam as white-ball captain backfired completely as Pakistan got eliminated in the opening round of the T20 World Cup 2024. Now, there are rumours that Shaheen Afridi could be reinstated as captain of the T20 format but there are other options like Rizwan too, and the drama in Pakistan cricket just continues to pile on.