Babar should’ve supported Shaheen as captain, says Afridi

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi criticised Babar Azam for taking over the captaincy from Shaheen Shah Afridi right before the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, saying Babar should've supported his long-time team-mate as the leader of the team instead.

Pakistan are officially out of the Super Eight race after the USA-Ireland match got washed out on Friday, meaning, India and the USA are set to move onto the next phase from Group A.

The Babar Azam-led side suffered a shock defeat in a Super Over finish against the USA and also lost a close match to arch-rivals India. Although they ended their losing streak with a comfortable win over Canada, the first two defeats squashed their hopes of progressing to the next round.

As expected, the Pakistan team is getting berated for their shocking performance with many former cricketers claiming there is a divide in the team after Babar returned as captain, replacing Shaheen who had led the T20I side for just one series before being stripped of captaincy.

Afridi said that Babar missed out on a chance to do the honourable thing when the selectors approached him to return as the white-ball captain ahead of the T20 World Cup.

"If the decision on Shaheen's captaincy had been made and you [PCB] had stated that he will remain the captain till the [T20] World Cup, then I think Babar should have supported Shaheen there and should have said that, 'No, if you have made him [Shaheen] the captain, then we are ready to play under his captaincy because Shaheen has been playing with me for a long time. If he is made captain and the selection committee has made him the captain, then yes I will support him and play under his captaincy'. This is the stance Babar should've taken. Babar's respect would've increased greatly because he then he would've set an example with a remarkable decision," Afridi said in his Youtube channel.

"But this was not entirely the fault of Babar because some of the blame lies with the selection committee too since some of the selectors on record said that Babar doesn't know how to do captaincy."

Pakistan will play their final match in the T20 World Cup against Ireland on Sunday.