Shahid wants Shaheen to focus on cricket, laments his own removal as captain

 Staff Report

 KARACHI: Opening up on the recent shakeup in the leadership of the Pakistan cricket team, former skipper Shahid Afridi has lamented his own and others’ removal as captain further stressing his desire to see his son-in-law Shaheen Shah Afridi focusing on his own cricket. “I want Shaheen to focus on his own cricket,” Afridi said in a statement, adding that the left-arm pacer didn’t heed his advice against accepting captaincy of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise Lahore Qalandars. “I always tried to keep Shaheen away from captaincy,” Afridi added, further noting that many former captains, including himself, didn’t see a good end — to their role as skippers. The veteran cricketer’s remarks come as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), last week, reinstated Babar Azam as the national side’s captain for T20I and one-day internationals (ODIs) ahead of the Green Shirt’s five-match T20I series against New Zealand set to commence on April 18.

The board, in a statement, said that the change in captaincy was a “strategic move” aimed at ensuring player well-being and peak performance and that the decision reflected PCB’s resolve to safeguard the longevity of the players, especially the fast bowlers. It is pertinent to know that the board had appointed Shaheen as the team’s T20 skipper following Babar’s resignation from the key post in November last year following the team’s below-par performance in the 2023 Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup. Elaborating on his views regarding the team’s captaincy, Afridi once again reiterated his support for Mohammad Rizwan and recalled that he had in fact advised the previous PCB chairman to appoint the wicket-keeper batter as the team’s skipper in white-ball cricket.