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Captaincy - Who else but Babar Azam?

The guy who was meant to captain at this event until part-time Interior Minister and King Backstab had other ideas.

Shaheen had a poor tournament admittedly but the captaincy shenanigans didn't help matters. Whatever your thoughts on his original appointment, sacking him after one series was crazy and created needless drama.

Fakhar is definitely a credible option but can blow hot and cold. Shadab is a passenger who doesn't even merit a place in the team. Shan is too old and another accumulator type batsman. Naseem is still very young, just returning from injury and has no captaincy experience. After that you're getting into some fanciful candidates.
 
Former Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower has weighed in on Pakistan’s ongoing captaincy debate following their early exit from the T20 World Cup 2024:

“As far as the leadership is concerned, Shadab Khan is out of the running because he is not doing his primary job well. I don’t think they will go back to Shaheen which leaves Babar and Rizwan as the option. Rizwan I think, is an excellent leader of men. He has got a big heart and he has got ample integrity and people follow him. I think he is an option for them,"

“They made some quite radical changes just prior to the World Cup. They brought Babar back as captain and relegated Shaheen. They also brought back Imad Wasim from the wilderness along with Mohammad Amir. So, big changes just prior to the tournament starting but I think these changes should have strengthened Pakistan,”
 
I will go with Rizwan or a successful young captain in the domestic circuit, preferably a batsman. Basically, Pakistan should emulate what South Africa did many years ago with Graeme Smith. Back him fully and the coach and create a paradigm shift.
 
Cricket Warrior said:
Former Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower has weighed in on Pakistan’s ongoing captaincy debate following their early exit from the T20 World Cup 2024:

“As far as the leadership is concerned, Shadab Khan is out of the running because he is not doing his primary job well. I don’t think they will go back to Shaheen which leaves Babar and Rizwan as the option. Rizwan I think, is an excellent leader of men. He has got a big heart and he has got ample integrity and people follow him. I think he is an option for them,"

“They made some quite radical changes just prior to the World Cup. They brought Babar back as captain and relegated Shaheen. They also brought back Imad Wasim from the wilderness along with Mohammad Amir. So, big changes just prior to the tournament starting but I think these changes should have strengthened Pakistan,”
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Spoke nothing but the truth. It’s such a simple common sense but common sense isn’t so common in Pakistan cricket.
 
Babar is obviously going to get hate, but his captaincy is not to blamed for the world cup debacle. He can't be blamed for Azam Khan's golden duck, or Amirs super over, or Rizwans brainfart Vs Bumrah, or Imads triple dot balls Vs Axar Patel, or Chachas inability to despatch full tosses. Even Fakhars shot Vs India was criminal when he knew there was an over from Axar/Jadeja still to come which he could target.
His on field captaincy was fine this tournament, we aren't going to get a Brearley or a stokes. The issue is that middle order batting which is quite shambolic, but I am fairly sure he didn't want Usman Azam or Imad in this team, (nor Amir whose super over has ultimately dumped us out of this tournament)
 
Abdullah said:
Babar is obviously going to get hate, but his captaincy is not to blamed for the world cup debacle. He can't be blamed for Azam Khan's golden duck, or Amirs super over, or Rizwans brainfart Vs Bumrah, or Imads triple dot balls Vs Axar Patel, or Chachas inability to despatch full tosses. Even Fakhars shot Vs India was criminal when he knew there was an over from Axar/Jadeja still to come which he could target.
His on field captaincy was fine this tournament, we aren't going to get a Brearley or a stokes. The issue is that middle order batting which is quite shambolic, but I am fairly sure he didn't want Usman Azam or Imad in this team, (nor Amir whose super over has ultimately dumped us out of this tournament)
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Yes he can. Here are his elementary mistakes that he makes 24/7.

1) Having chacha as a slip fielder even though chacha has dropped more dollies then anyone I have ever seen.

2) Moving long off up In usa gake aka assuming that usa were going to run 4. They'd obviously hit straight.

3) Never playing abrar solely to protect shadab, Even though axar patel vs Imad showed that abrar could have been the deciding factor against India.

4) Bowling Amir in the super over. It made no sense, Naseem was the best bowler that game, USA couldn't even read him? His test match line and length would have been a nightmare to play?

5) His drs reviews remain crap to this day. He burned out 2 reviews against Ireland, Burned out multiple against Canada and India because rizwan told him to and the bowler as well. Bhai your captain, Take a stand and get control of your unit.

6) Just being rigid in shuffling. Every team, Even Afghanistan shuffle the batting order depending on situation. But fakhar being tried as an opener, or Usman khan being tried as an opener or rizwan being tried in middle order or chacha and imad being promoted etc etc is an alien concept to him irrespective of match situation.

7) Just being a coward in the super over. Last time fakhar and Chacha came in a super over, they scored 2 runs against Zimbabwe. These 2 are clear failures in the SO so what's the point of selecting them again? Even if he didn't want to send himself cause he's a coward. Why couldn't he try usman khan and azam khan combo or anyone other then the pair that scored 2 runs against Zimbabwe?
 
Speaking on national television, Younis Khan said why Fakhar Zaman couldn’t be the next T201 captain in place of Babar Azam:

“Why can’t Fakhar Zaman be the captain of the side isn’t he a performer? Didn’t he do well in the last 50-over World Cup? Who is that one player who gave us hope? Zaman started the 2023 World Cup in India poorly however, in the second half turned his form around which coincided with Pakistan’s success”

“Who is that one player in the side who is leaving his opening slot and batting down at four or five or six? Who is sacrificing his place? Fakhar Zaman! Why won’t you make him the captain?”
 
Cricket Warrior said:
Speaking on national television, Younis Khan said why Fakhar Zaman couldn’t be the next T201 captain in place of Babar Azam:

“Why can’t Fakhar Zaman be the captain of the side isn’t he a performer? Didn’t he do well in the last 50-over World Cup? Who is that one player who gave us hope? Zaman started the 2023 World Cup in India poorly however, in the second half turned his form around which coincided with Pakistan’s success”

“Who is that one player in the side who is leaving his opening slot and batting down at four or five or six? Who is sacrificing his place? Fakhar Zaman! Why won’t you make him the captain?”
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Captaincy doesn't suit fakhar, he's a shariff dude and in Pakistan they'll tear him apart.

Pakistan needed to make him the ultimate hitman of an opener, but babar being a coward ruined Fakhar. Don't forget rizwan being his ultimate sidekick
 
Fakhar is not captaincy material nor does he have any experience to even do so in any domestic event. He is way too naive for this role. Not gonna suit him.

We need a guy who is aggressive and chirpy on field like Sarfaraz (obviously not bring him back No Please). This team need DANDA.
 
mominsaigol said:
Captaincy doesn't suit fakhar, he's a shariff dude and in Pakistan they'll tear him apart.

Pakistan needed to make him the ultimate hitman of an opener, but babar being a coward ruined Fakhar. Don't forget rizwan being his ultimate sidekick
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"Shariff" dude lol

nobody will ask him to become a gangster if he becomes a captain lol
 
Lol Fakhar not suitable because he’s “sharif’.

I guess by that logic Kane Williamson is the worst captain ever because he’s the most sharif of them all.

The bottom line here is folks, people will say anything for some attention.
 
topspin said:
Lol Fakhar not suitable because he’s “sharif’.

I guess by that logic Kane Williamson is the worst captain ever because he’s the most sharif of them all.

The bottom line here is folks, people will say anything for some attention.
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I believe Fakhar should be the captain. They tried everyone else except for him.

Fakhar is an attacking batter. Maybe he can be an attacking captain too. Who knows?
 
sweep_shot said:
I believe Fakhar should be the captain. They tried everyone else except for him.

Fakhar is an attacking batter. Maybe he can be attacking captain too. Who knows?
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I see no problem in giving him a go. It may work out or it may not work out but one thing for sure is that he makes the team on merit and leads by example with his selfless intent with the bat.

He’s a luxury player to have. If he’s on song, he can win matches on his own. In between these games, there will be a fair share of failures but I prefer this approach compared to our stat paddlers, who continue to pursue run a ball half centuries.
 
topspin said:
Lol Fakhar not suitable because he’s “sharif’.

I guess by that logic Kane Williamson is the worst captain ever because he’s the most sharif of them all.

The bottom line here is folks, people will say anything for some attention.
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Williamson doesn't have to deal with ego heads and self absorbed maniacs to busy to be social media stars.

And Williamson has decades of captaincy experience while fakhar barely has any is almost mid 30's.
 
mominsaigol said:
Williamson doesn't have to deal with ego heads and self absorbed maniacs to busy to be social media stars.

And Williamson has decades of captaincy experience while fakhar barely has any is almost mid 30's.
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Absolutely right. There is no comparison between both of them SHARIFFS.

Kane has tons and tons of experience and more importantly, he does not have to be a captain of a team that has grouping. Fakhar has different problems and his sharafat is not gonna work in this environment.
 
Pakistan’s legendary pacer Wasim Akram predicted that left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi will get the leadership of the national team again, he said:

“Babar [Azam] was removed and Shaheen was brought in. He then lost one series and at that time, a new chairman came, who ordered to change the captain and the captain was changed,”

“This is not on. People make fun of us in world cricket. They don’t get it. If you made [Shaheen] Afridi captain, then should have given him at least a year,”

“They don’t ask us [anything] but it’s good that we’re away from Pakistan cricket. It’s a blessing in disguise because it’s just criticism and politics,”

“He’s a wicket-taking bowler. He goes for wickets. He attacks with the new ball in the T20 format. Everyone knows that he’ll pitch it up but he still gets them out and that’s what I love about him,”

“He’s an aggressive cricketer and he’s only 23 or 24 years old, maybe younger. Got a bright future ahead. He’ll get the captaincy again but should focus on his game until he doesn’t get it,”
 
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Captaincy is an art and a facet in and of itself. Randomly chosing a player has never worked for Pakistan.
People often criticise selecting players predominantly for their captaincy like Sarfraz and Younis in t20s (he was never suited for t20s) but ultimately they are the ones who can make brave decisions at crucial times and deliver us trophies.

For that reason I back Shan. He has experience with Yorkshire, already has test captaincy and seems like a calm, mature cricketing brain. Yes he may not be the best batsman out there but he still makes our t20 middle order easily.

He's also a completely fresh face from outside the dosti yari gang. Rizwan, Shadab and Shaheen have been on the pitch during Babar's captaincy blunders - they could have suggested corrections e.g. to field placements. Clearly these 3 are as clueless as Babar.

We've already learnt PSL is nothing to go by at all and I'm sure that extends to captaincy aswell. So despite Rizwan's decent record at MS it doesn't really mean much (especially when I don't think he makes the t20 side atm with his rubbish sr).

Going forward I would open with Fakhar and Saim in t20s with Babar at 3 and Shan at 4.Hopefully we find a good middle order from domestic performers in the coming couple of years. Maybe the likes of Kamran Ghulam could be given a chance.
Iftikhar really needs to improve otherwise he should be given the boot - he's been playing for many years now. Rizwan definitely is not good enough for t20s.
 
In ODIs we also need a revamp.
Shafique and Fakhar as openers
Babar at 3
Shan at 4 (averages 50 in List A)
Rizwan or another wk batsman at 5
power hitter at 6
all- rounder at 7
proper spinner like Abrar
Shaheen, Naseem and Waseem jr or Rauf as pacers

No one here is captaincy material except Shan so may aswell make him ODI captain aswell.
 
Pak next big assignment is the ODI champions Trophy so now the focus should be to put a good show at home. We desperately need to put this T20 World Cup behind and focus on the ODI line up.
I would opt for Shan Masood to be captain. He’s a decent bat for our fragile middle order.
Remove unfit and underperforming players. Shadab, Azam, ifti and Saim

get a few youngsters in such as Irfan niazi, qasim Akram, M Harris

I would play a XI something like the below

1. Fakhar
2. Abdullah
3. Babar
4. Shan (c)
5. Saud
6. Rizwan
7. Jamal
8. Abbas Afridi
9. Naseem
10. Shaheen (vc)
11. Abrar

Back up
12. Aga Salman
13. Mehran
14. Qasim Akram
15. M Harris
16. Tayyab Tahir ( this guy never got a proper chance) we kept on playing trashy ifti
17. Saim Ayub
18. Harris Rauf


I know there aren’t explosive players but that’s the best we have currently. I rather have a batsman that can hold a bat at 5/6 rather than the trashy stuff we have been dishing out lately. Pak just need to find a way to pay their game
 
Gary Kirsten speaking fire, there leeches in the team underperforming hopefully all of them will be exposed soon
 

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Rizwan looks to be the alternate and may be because of that he was praising Mohsin Naqvi so much.
 
I want rizwan to be the captain of CT 2025.

Because then the sarfi vs rizwan drama will start
 
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Babar' s fault SSA gets smacked by Wade

Babar's fault Amir bowls a dumb superover

Apart from Naseem Shah and Babar no player is guaranteed of place in XI.

Team Is already in turmoil changing captains for the sake of it won't work
 
Babar is not a deserving guy for captaincy anymore. Captaincy has done a lot of damage to Babar as a player let alone all this drama.

It is better for his own sake to leave this extra burden and let somebody else handle stuff.
 
Former Pakistan captain Younis Khan has thrown his weight behind current national white-ball captain Babar Azam, pointing out the lack of captaincy options in the country, he said:

“We give our views very quickly. If we talk about our current team, the players don’t have a fault. Instead, I will blame the infrastructure. If we don’t have the back-up, how will you replace the (out of form) players?”

“We generally speak that Babar Azam should not be the captain. If not Babar Azam, who else should be the captain? That’s not Babar Azam’s fault,”

“Neither this is the current selection committee’s fault. This is the fault of something that happened 5-6 years back. We should have built our bench strength,”
 
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In an interview former Pakistan cricket legend Saqlain Mushtaq has shared his thoughts on the ongoing debate surrounding Babar Azam's captaincy, he said:

"Many people are saying that he [Babar Azam] should quit captaincy and play as a regular player. But all these voices are coming from outside, from people who are watching and listening to things from the outside. These are comments from outsiders. We shouldn't listen to the voices of those outside. The people inside, who are observing the situation from within, should see what’s really going on and decide who is capable of leading the team effectively,"

"If you have to appoint a captain, do you look at the short term, long term, or mid term? What are you considering when appointing a captain? We don't seem to have a vision; we look at what's going to happen tomorrow and appoint a captain, then change the team the next day. Because the people making these decisions don't even know if they'll be around tomorrow, there's no plan for the long term,"

"For example, Shaheen was appointed for the short term and he's already out. Now Babar has come in for the short term, there's been just one World Cup, and now he'll be changed. Someone else will come, and then there's the Champions Trophy, and after that, the T20 World Cup,"

"If you want to create a leader, where does the philosophy of working together go? How will you work together? If you don't have any plan, you'll make anyone the captain. The more you keep chopping and changing, the more time you'll have to give to experiments. And before experimenting, you have to create a complete strategy and look at the pros and cons of that experiment,"

"Now imagine you remove Babar and Shaheen and bring in someone else. Who will evaluate them? Who will see that the captain, whoever it is, should be made for the next 2-3 years and how they will produce results for Pakistan? Unfortunately, there is no system here. A system has never been created, and there has never been any ambition to create one. We don't have the ambition to say that we will groom 3-4 captains over the next 5 years from Under-19 to associations based on their performances. Their performances should be evaluated not just by watching matches or results, but by talking to them, listening to them, understanding their vision, and looking at their leadership qualities. By following this process, you will see which leader emerges. I don't see any of these things here. If we keep appointing a third, fourth, and fifth captain in this manner, we will never create a top-class team, nor will we be recognized globally,"
 
Cricket Warrior said:
In an interview former Pakistan cricket legend Saqlain Mushtaq has shared his thoughts on the ongoing debate surrounding Babar Azam's captaincy, he said:

"Many people are saying that he [Babar Azam] should quit captaincy and play as a regular player. But all these voices are coming from outside, from people who are watching and listening to things from the outside. These are comments from outsiders. We shouldn't listen to the voices of those outside. The people inside, who are observing the situation from within, should see what’s really going on and decide who is capable of leading the team effectively,"

"If you have to appoint a captain, do you look at the short term, long term, or mid term? What are you considering when appointing a captain? We don't seem to have a vision; we look at what's going to happen tomorrow and appoint a captain, then change the team the next day. Because the people making these decisions don't even know if they'll be around tomorrow, there's no plan for the long term,"

"For example, Shaheen was appointed for the short term and he's already out. Now Babar has come in for the short term, there's been just one World Cup, and now he'll be changed. Someone else will come, and then there's the Champions Trophy, and after that, the T20 World Cup,"

"If you want to create a leader, where does the philosophy of working together go? How will you work together? If you don't have any plan, you'll make anyone the captain. The more you keep chopping and changing, the more time you'll have to give to experiments. And before experimenting, you have to create a complete strategy and look at the pros and cons of that experiment,"

"Now imagine you remove Babar and Shaheen and bring in someone else. Who will evaluate them? Who will see that the captain, whoever it is, should be made for the next 2-3 years and how they will produce results for Pakistan? Unfortunately, there is no system here. A system has never been created, and there has never been any ambition to create one. We don't have the ambition to say that we will groom 3-4 captains over the next 5 years from Under-19 to associations based on their performances. Their performances should be evaluated not just by watching matches or results, but by talking to them, listening to them, understanding their vision, and looking at their leadership qualities. By following this process, you will see which leader emerges. I don't see any of these things here. If we keep appointing a third, fourth, and fifth captain in this manner, we will never create a top-class team, nor will we be recognized globally,"
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Yeah.. Saqlain would be keen on retaining Babar as captain.. who else in their right minds would pick Shadab Khan over and over again...

I cannot begin to fathom the depths our cricket has fallen to... shameful to say the least...
 
I think Babar was not a captain for a short term. It has been good 3-4 years now. There is really no improvement. The team lost all the big events. Lots of infighting in the team. All these things lead to only one guy and that is Babar as a captain.

It is going to be the wisest of things to do if he can just let it go and play as a payer. NO NEED to take the extra burden when you cannot.
 
Let's hope everybody swallows their ego , and reinstate Babar as Test Captain , surely we do not have options.

Shan Masood experiment has resulted in utter disaster humiliation, hopefully the Est will take notice and make amends
 
Everyone who thought Babar’s captaincy was holding the team back and Masood would drive the team forward should be put in jail.
 
Simple truth is Bobs would have lost this series as well. No captaincy can save you when you get outskilled like that.

Just no bowling talent in Pakistan
 
Mamoon said:
Everyone who thought Babar’s captaincy was holding the team back and Masood would drive the team forward should be put in jail.
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This doesn’t change anything . Babar has to be one of worst captain in Pakistan history . Not to forget how selfish and egoistic he is .
 
Varun said:
Or batting.
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Batting is still alright by their standards . BD bowling looked leagues ahead of this "attack" .

Nahid was much quicker and could sustain pace better.

Hasan showed a level of skill and intelligence that none of these guys have

Taskin got more zip off the surface and was more accurate than these trundlers too.

Abrar looked much worse than Agha Salman, forget about Mehidy.
 
Man, for some of you, there is more brain activity in a cemetery, pin pointing this Bangla Test series defeat to one man alone.
 
Kianig89 said:
Let's hope everybody swallows their ego , and reinstate Babar as Test Captain , surely we do not have options.

Shan Masood experiment has resulted in utter disaster humiliation, hopefully the Est will take notice and make amends
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Babar doesn’t even warrant a place in the team. He needs to go back to Lahore blues and climb up the ranks again

It is high time that either Saifi is given back captaincy or Saud is made captain with Saifi as coach.
 
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