Babar Azam’s resignation as white-ball captain for a second time in less than a year not only marked the end of a time for underwhelming results under him but also highlighted the “captaincy roulette” within Pakistan cricket.
After stepping down as captain from all formats following Pakistan’s exit at the Men’s ODI World Cup in India last year, Babar was again made Pakistan’s captain for the T20I and ODI sides earlier this year. In his absence, Shaheen Shah Afridi, the T20I captain, was sacked after Pakistan lost the series 4-1 to New Zealand in the shortest format.
Babar’s first stint as Pakistan’s captain saw the team achieve multi-format series wins over South Africa, an ODI series victory over Australia, and reaching the semi-final plus final of 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups.
But in his second captaincy stint, Pakistan won just six of 13 T20I matches. They drew the home T20I series against New Zealand 2-2, managed to win a bilateral series against Ireland 2-1, before losing 2-0 in England just before the T20 World Cup.
In the T20 World Cup, the 2009 champions had a disastrous time, where defeats to co-hosts USA and India – after being in a position to win at New York – in their Group A matches saw them crash out of the competition without entering the knockouts.
Amidst reports of lack of team cohesiveness and infighting, Babar didn’t get to captain the team in ODIs before his second stint came to an end, where a dip in his batting form was also evident – like he didn’t score a fifty in his last 10 international innings.
With Pakistan’s next white-ball assignment in the form of travelling to Australia for three T20Is and three ODIs, followed by tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa, it should be interesting to see who takes over from Babar and brings the embattled team back on track.
Pakistan Cricket captaincy timeline:
November 15, 2023: Babar Azam stepped down after ODI World Cup debacle. Shan Masood appointed Test captain and Shaheen Afridi takes over as T20I captain
March 31, 2024: Shaheen Afridi sacked as T20I captain and Babar Azam was re-appointed as white-ball captain with Shan Masood continuing as Test skipper.
October 2, 2024: Babar Azam resigns as ODI and T20I captain