Babar Azam clears rumors about rift between him and Shaheen Afridi for Pakistan captaincy

Pakistan white-ball captain Babar Azam has made it clear that he has been long-time pals with teammate and left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi, who was just lately sacked from T20 captaincy.

The Pakistan Cricket Board, after the arrival of recent chief Mohsin Naqvi, determined to maneuver on from Afridi because the restricted overs skipper solely after one sequence loss in New Zealand in January by 4-1.

This growth had sparked rumors that Babar and Afridi are having a rift between one another however the former has cleared each rumor.

Final month, the PCB confirmed that Babar Azam has been reinstated because the captain of Pakistan’s ODI and T20I groups, simply 4 months after he had resigned from the position himself.

Babar relinquished captaincy proper after the Inexperienced Military’s embarrassing exit from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 as they completed within the fifth spot of the factors desk. It was the primary time that Babar was captaining the group in an ODI WC nevertheless it didn’t go too properly.

Following his resignation from captaincy, the PCB appointed Shan Masood because the Take a look at captain and Shaheen Afridi because the T20 captain. Each Masood and Afridi suffered one-sided losses towards Australia and New Zealand of their first project as captain.

Whereas the Aussies whitewashed Pakistan 3-0 within the Take a look at sequence, the Kiwis punched the Males in Inexperienced 4-1 in a 5-match T20I sequence. After that, all Pakistani gamers acquired busy enjoying BPL T20, ILT20, after which season 9 of PSL.

Proper after the match ended, PCB went on to re-appoint Babar’s captaincy with the considered seeing him lead the group within the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 and the three T20I sequence earlier than the match. 

Babar Azam reveals his bonding with Shaheen Afridi remains to be excellent 

Whereas talking to media reporters forward of Pakistan’s 1st T20I towards New Zealand in Rawalpindi, Babar Azam claimed that his relationship with Shaheen Afridi goes a good distance again. “I wish to clarify that Shaheen [Afridi] and my bond is just not current, it goes again a good distance.” – Babar informed reporters.

The 29-year-old additional said that each of them assist one another in each single state of affairs and that their primary motive is to assist Pakistan win video games after which take into consideration their glories. “We assist one another in each state of affairs. Our purpose is to place Pakistan first, and easy methods to put Pakistan’s title up in lights. We do not consider particular person glory, and fortunately, these components will not be current in my group.” – Babar concluded.

Pakistan’s full squad for the T20 sequence towards New Zealand 

Babar Azam (c), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Amir, Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Usama Mir, Usman Khan (wk), Zaman Khan