A few hours after the resignation of Babar Azam as captain from all cricket formats, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Wednesday picked Shan Masood Test captain of Pakistan Men’s Cricket Team, while Shaheen Shah Afridi has been named T20I skipper.
34-year-old Shan has featured in 30 Tests, scoring 1,597 runs, which includes four centuries and seven half-centuries, said the PCB in news statement.
“Shan has been appointed captain till the end of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25. Shan’s first assignment as captain will be a three-match Test series against Australia in Australia starting from 14 December,” the cricket board noted.
Meanwhile, left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah will lead Pakistan Men’s Team in the T20I format and his first assignment as captain will be the five-match T20I series in New Zealand from 12 to 21 January, said the board in the statement.
23-year-old Shaheen has bagged 64 wickets in 52 T20Is, the board said while sharing stats of Shaheen who has o captained Lahore Qalandars in HBL PSL and helped the side win the tournament twice in two years in the 2022 and 2023 editions.
“Shan and Shaheen were appointed captains after Babar Azam today stepped down from all three formats of the game,” the board said while adding Pakistan’s captain in the ODI format will be announced in due course.
In another press release, the PCB said former Test captain Mohammad Hafeez has been given the responsibility of Director – Pakistan Men’s Cricket Team.
Mohammad Hafeez has featured for Pakistan in 55 Tests, 218 ODIs and 119 T20Is and has scored 12,780 runs and has taken 253 wickets, it added.
“Hafeez was recently part of the PCB Cricket Technical Committee. The former all-rounder was part of Pakistan Men’s team which won the ICC Champions Trophy in England in 2017,” the board noted.
The PCB has changed the portfolio of the Pakistan coaching staff. All coaches will continue to work in National Cricket Academy while PCB will announce the new coaching staff in due course for the upcoming series in Australia and New Zealand.
