Babar Azam set to be announced as Pakistan's ODI captain
After having replaced Sarfaraz Ahmed in the shortest format as Pakistan's T20 captain, Babar Azam is set to be named as their new ODI captain as well. Having lost 3-0 to Sri Lanka at home in the T20 series in October last year, Sarfaraz was dropped from the Pakistan team and Azhar Ali and Babar Azam were named as the new Test and T20 skippers respectively.
But the ODI skipper was not named by Pakistan at that point because the next ODI series for the Men in Green would be the lone ODI to be played against Bangladesh at home on April 3rd.
Sarfaraz's biggest achievement with the Pakistan ODI team was leading them to the 2017 Champions Trophy title. He also had helped Pakistan gain the number one rank in T20Is. Thus, former chief selector and head coach Mohsin Khan felt that it was absolutely unfair to drop Sarfaraz both as a player and as a skipper from Pakistan's limited-overs cricket.
"There is no way the PCB or selectors can now justify not keeping Sarfaraz in the ODI team or replacing him with Babar Azam. It would be great injustice with a fine captain and a player,” Mohsin was quoted as saying by PTI.
“There was pressure on Sarfaraz as captain for all three formats but he is still the ideal choice for the white-ball formats,” he further added.
That being said, Pakistan came back strongly after the whitewash at the hands of Sri Lanka and Australia with a win the T20I series against Bangladesh under the leadership of Babar Azam. Pakistan will be hopeful of expecting similar performances from the team in ODIs as well. Sarfaraz Ahmed can make a comeback to the Pakistan team if he does well in domestic cricket and in the Pakistan Super League.