Mumbai, July 28: A significant update has emerged regarding Babar Azam as he takes charge of the Pakistan Test team ahead of the ongoing series against the West Indies. According to reports, Babar Azam stipulated that he would only accept the Test captaincy if he was reinstated as captain for all three formats by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
As per a report from Telecom Asia Sport, “Before the announcement of the Test captain on July 5, two selectors met with Babar, as there were no other viable options for the Test team captaincy. Babar accepted the role on the condition that he would also lead in the other two formats.”
The report further states, “Babar has always wanted to be the sole captain of Pakistan in all three formats. He set this condition before agreeing to take on the Test captaincy. In response, the selectors indicated that if the team performs well in the five Test matches against the West Indies and England, he would be granted captaincy across all formats.”
Currently, fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi is the captain of the ODI team, but his performance has been disappointing. He was removed from the T20 captaincy after a poor series against New Zealand in 2024. At present, Salman Ali Agha is leading the T20 format.
The PCB took two months to remove Shan Masood as Test captain. Since December 2023, Masood led Pakistan in 16 Test matches, suffering losses in 12 of them.
The selectors had approached Salman Agha for the Test captaincy, but he declined the responsibility, struggling as T20 captain. His performance in the T20 World Cup and the Asia Cup earlier this year was subpar.
According to the report, “When Babar resigned from captaincy, he was offered to continue as Test captain, but he did not want to lead in just one format. At that time, Zaka Ashraf was the PCB chairman. Following Pakistan’s early exit from the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, he wanted to remove Babar. Ashraf called Babar for a meeting, but upon learning that Shan was already in the chairman’s office, Babar decided to step down from all formats.”
With the disappointing performances of Salman Agha in T20 and Shaheen Afridi in ODIs, coupled with Babar Azam’s new Test captaincy, the likelihood of him becoming Pakistan’s captain across all formats has increased once again.
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