Former Pakistani opener Ahmed Shehzad has taken aim at Babar Azam’s return to captaincy of the team, saying that the former skipper’s love for leadership is behind his repeated returns to the role.
Speaking during a recent television programme, Shehzad questioned the decision to hand Babar the captaincy again despite a dip in his batting form. “You made another player captain, even though he had already proven to be a failed captain,” he began.
“On top of that, he had scored only around 550 runs in his last 30 to 32 innings. Despite his poor form and all the discussions about how his own performances were suffering, you still brought him back as captain,” he stated.
Shehzad argued that the pattern had been visible for a while before the decision was made. “People had been saying for a long time that his batting was declining because of captaincy,” he noted. “Yet, despite all of that, you handed him the role again. It was almost as if he himself was eager to take it back.”
He went on to suggest that Babar’s attachment to the leadership role came from the privileges that come with it rather than any tactical necessity. “Babar Azam likes being captain,” Shehzad remarked.
“Obviously, captaincy comes with stardom and authority within the team. When you’re the captain, you get privileges, you stay in a suite, the whole team follows your lead, and you receive higher daily allowances. I think he became so attached to the role that even after failing two or three times, he still decided to take the captaincy again,” he continued.
Shehzad was direct in dismissing any suggestion that Babar’s decision was made for the good of Pakistan cricket.
“But please don’t say he did it for the country,” he concluded. “That’s simply not true. There were no records or achievements that suggest he accepted the captaincy purely for Pakistan. Instead, after leading the team two or three times and seeing his own performances decline, he could have stepped aside and allowed a younger player or someone else to take over. But he accepted the role again immediately.”
Shehzad’s comments come days after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) confirmed Babar’s return as Test captain, replacing Shan Masood, ahead of the team’s two match series in the West Indies starting July 25 and a three match series in England to follow.
Masood had led the side since November 2023, winning four and losing 12 of his 16 Tests in charge, a run that left Pakistan bottom of the World Test Championship table.
Babar previously captained the Test side between 2020 and 2023, leading Pakistan in 20 matches with 10 wins, six defeats and four draws.
