Respect for Babar Azam would have grown had he played under Shaheen Afridi's captaincy, says Shahid Afridi amid Pakistan's 2024 T20 World Cup campaign
Former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has expressed his disappointment with Babar Azam replacing Shaheen Afridi as Pakistan's captain ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024. Babar had stepped down from the captaincy after a poor ODI World Cup campaign last year, and Shaheen was handed the reins in the shortest format.
However, Pakistan struggled in the pacer's only series as captain against New Zealand. Newly appointed PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi didn't fancy backing Shaheen's leadership, reinstating Babar as the white-ball captain.
Speaking on Samaa TV, Shahid Afridi explained why he feels Babar Azam would have gained everyone's respect had he accepted playing under Shaheen Afridi's captaincy. He said:
"Mai isko iss tarah leta hu ke meri nazar mei, duniya ki nazar mei, Babar Azam ki izzat aur zyad upar ho jaati agar woh ye stand leta apne player ke liye ki 'main Shaheen ki kaptaani mei khelna chahta hu.' Shaheen ko agar bana diya kaptaan toh ye galat tareeqa hai ke aap usko fauran kaptaani se hata dein" (How I see it is that in my eyes and the eyes of the world, respect for Babar would have grown had he taken a stand and said, 'I will play under Shaheen's captaincy.' It was wrong to remove Shaheen as captain so early)."
There has been a lot of talk and reports about divided camps in the Pakistan team following the captaincy saga. Shahid Afridi opined it shows the lack of respect the players have for their leader.
Shahid Afridi criticizes Babar Azam's statements
Shahid Afridi also had a go at Babar Azam for the latter's statements in the post-match presentation ceremonies and press conferences. The former cricketer feels Babar puts a lot of blame on the bowlers, rarely accepting the batters' mistakes.
On this, Shahid said:
"At every presentation you (Babar) criticise the bowlers. You never take responsibility. I haven't heard, other than on an odd occasion that you put responsibilty (of a defeat) on the batsmen. A captain has to take everybody forward with him. If a captain is of a strong character, then news like formation of groups in the team will never come out."
Pakistan gave their fans some respite with a comfortable seven-wicket win over Canada in their T20 World Cup clash on Tuesday. However, they still need to beat Ireland by a good margin and hope that either the USA or India lose both their games, taking a massive dent in the net run rate, to go below that of Pakistan.