The former T20 WC winner Shoaib Malik has shared his views regarding the leadership conundrum in Pakistan Cricket and advised Babar Azam to give up the captaincy of the national team voluntarily. He mentioned that this change would help Babar to better focus on his batting and create records in the world as a player.
“Babar Azam is a great batter but we do injustice by putting his leadership qualities and batting ability on the same scale. This (giving up leadership role) will help Babar Azam make more records on an international level as the pressure on him will be limited to his batting,” Shoaib Malik was quoted as saying to Geo News on their “Score” programme.
Malik also stated that people who are guiding Babar should tell him to quit captaincy. It’s because he needs to improve himself in the leadership department which will take some time to mature. But our culture is all about people expecting results overnight.
Meanwhile, the current Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, Najam Sethi, had recently clarified that Babar Azam will continue to captain the national side and said, “For now, we have retained Babar as a captain because he is our main player. His captaincy is often discussed in media, we have nothing to do with it.”
He also mentioned that Babar's captaincy future will be decided by the PCB’s selection committee and the new national team director, Mickey Arthur.
Furthermore, PCB had named Shadab Khan as the stand-in captain for the three-match T20I series last month against Afghanistan at UAE, while giving rest to senior players including Babar Azam. Afghanistan went on to win the T20I series by 2-1 margin against Pakistan for the first time ever and made history.