The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Wednesday announced the names of the new captains for T20I and Test formats after Babar Azam stepped down on the same day.
Left-handed batter Shan Masood has been named as the new Test captain while left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi will take the realm of the shorter format.
"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," PCB said in a press release.
"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. 23-year-old Shaheen has bagged 64 wickets in 52 T20Is. Shaheen has also captained Lahore Qalandars in HBL PSL and has helped the side win the tournament twice in two years in the 2022 and 2023 editions."
It must be noted that Azam stepped down from captaincy through a post on social media after the PCB offered him to keep Test captaincy. The 29-year-old refused and informed the board in the meeting that he is resigning from all formats.
Babar was appointed white-ball captain in 2019 and as Test skipper in 2020, but the Green Shirts have not won any ICC or Asia Cup titles under his leadership.
Although the Pakistan team went into the World Cup ranked as the top side, they failed to prove their mettle and crashed out of the tournament in the group stage.
They created multiple unwanted records as the team lost four consecutive matches and five overall in the mega event, for the first time in Pakistan's history.
Other than that, Babar's performance as a batter was not according to his standards as the right-handed batter only managed to amass 320 runs in nine World Cup matches at a 40.00 average with a strike rate of 82.90.
It must be noted that the World Cup 2023 was Azam's fifth tournament as a captain after the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cup and 2022 and 2023 Asia Cup where the failed to bag any silverware.
- Shaheen Afridi