The former Cricket player Shahid Afridi prefers Mohammad Rizwan to lead the T20I squad over Shaheen Afridi.
Shahid picks Rizwan for T20I captaincy
Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi has favored Rizwan and preferred him for the T20 captaincy over his son-in-law Shaheen.
After Babar Azam stepped down from captaincy, Pakistan named Shaheen Afridi as T20I captain which decision displeased the former skipper Shahid.
Afridi praised Rizwan as an impressive player and advocated for him as the perfect candidate to lead Pakistan in a short format.
While speaking in the media he said, “(I admire Rizwan’s) hard work and focus level. His best quality, which I like most, is only focusing on his game and paying no heed to who doing what and what is not. He is really a fighter!”
“I want to see him [Rizwan] as the T20 captain but mistakenly, Shaheen became the skipper,” Afridi said on a lighter note while looking towards the left-arm quick, who was sitting behind him at the event.
Afridi’s comments created a humourous scene through the crowd and the players on the stage including Rizwan, Harif Rauf, and Shaheen also had smiles on their faces.
The fast bowler had replaced batter Babar Azam in the role in November. The 23-year-old has played in 52 T20Is and bagged 64 wickets in his T20I career.
Shaheen has led Lahore Qalandars in the PSL and helped the side to win the tournament in the 2022 and 2023 editions. Afridi has previously attempted to stop Shaheen from accepting Lahore Qalandars captaincy.
The 46-year-old former cricketer had advised his son-in-law to stay away from the captaincy role for a year or two and asked him to focus more on his bowling.
Pakistan is currently playing a three-match Test series in the Pakistan tour of Australia 2023 where the hosts lead the series 2-0. Shaheen Afridi dismissed a total of 8 wickets on the first and second tests of the tour and awaits to play in the third test.
Pakistan and Australia will be playing the third and final test in Australia starting at Sydney Cricket Ground.
After completing their test series in Australia, Pakistan will be playing a five-match T20I series against New Zealand in a home-away tour starting in the middle of January 2024.
New Zealand and Pakistan will be playing their first T20I match on January 12 at Eden Park, Auckland.
