La dimisión de Babar Azam ha desencadenado una batalla a tres bandas para sustituir al inexperto capitán del balón blanco de Pakistán.

Babar Rizwan’s successor as Pakistan’s white-ball captain is a battle among three stars that excludes Mohammad Rizwan. The keeper-batter was reportedly the favorite to replace Azam after the former tendered his resignation following the debacle at the T20 World Cup. However, adding to reports that earlier suggested that Rizwan was yet to be consulted by the PCB regarding captaincy, it has emerged that there are three fresh stars in the fray.

Who can replace Babar Azam as Pakistan captain?

As per Cricket Pakistan, Saud Shakeel, Salman Ali Agha and Fakhar Zaman are frontrunners for the position. While Saud vice-captained for the side in the PAK vs BAN Test series, Zaman has led the Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The third option, Salman Ali Agha, has no experience of leading a side, including in the domestic tournaments.

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No Rizwan in PCB’s scheme of things

As per Cricket Pakistan, no discussions have taken place so far between PCB and Rizwan regarding captaincy. The report also claims that the keeper-batter has not been invited to any meetings over the T20 World Cup debacle or the historic series loss to Bangladesh. Rizwan is expected to consider the captaincy offer carefully, even if he is offered the position and is likely to express his concerns over the treatments of captains before him, the report added.

Babar Azam felt increasingly disconnected with his teammates following the T20 World Cup, forcing him to take the decision to step down as skipper. Additionally, the star batter also reportedly felt undervalued with the team. It is pertinent to point out that Babar was reinstated as the skipper just before the T20 WC after having stepped down from the role in 2023 after the ODI World Cup.