LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq opened up about the change in leadership of the national side on Thursday.
Misbah said that the correct approach was not adopted while removing Babar Azam as well as Shaheen Afridi from captaincy in the recent past.
“The process of changing captain in Pakistan is extremely unpleasant and this affects the players,” Misbah said while talking to media in Lahore.
“Babar was removed from captaincy in the wrong manner and so was Shaheen Afridi.
“Both Babar and Shaheen are our star players and my best wishes are with the team and I hope they perform well.”
It must be noted that the Pakistan Cricket Board last month named Azam as the new white-ball skipper of the national side.
The PCB said that the change was “a strategic move aimed at ensuring player well-being and peak performance”.
“While Shaheen Afridi has undeniably proven himself as a star fast bowler, leading Pakistan’s pace attack over the years, the board recognises the importance of rotation and rest to maintain his peak performance. This decision aligns with board's commitment to safeguarding the longevity of the players, especially fast bowlers given their injury timelines in the past two years,” the PCB added.
“Keeping in mind workload management, this decision is to ensure Pakistan main bowlers remain at the top of their game. The board does not want the national men’s team to run into injury crisis concerning the bowling resoucres as seen before the ICC T20 World Cup 2022, where Shaheen had to bee closely looked after and ICC ODI Cricket World Cup 2023, where the team didn’t have the services of Naseem Shah.”
Shaheen replaced Azam as skipper in T20I cricket and Shan Masood in Tests last year.
Sohail Imran Sohail Imran is a senior reporter for Geo News.- Shaheen Afridi