Shahid Afridi denies lobbying for son-in-law Shaheen Afridi to become Pakistan T20I captain

Pakistan cricket team are undergoing a tough phase at the moment. Pakistan’s league stage exit from the 2023 Cricket World Cup was followed by Babar Azam’s decision to resign as skipper from all three formats. World Cup 2023: News | Schedule | Results | Points table Just hours after Babar’s announcement, the PCB named Shan Masood and Shaheen Afridi to lead the Test and T20I sides, whereas a decision on the ODI skipper is yet to be taken. Following Shaheen’s appointment, there were conspiracy theories that had come up, claiming that Shahid Afridi, the former Pakistan skipper, had lobbied the selection of Shaheen Afridi as Pakistan T20I skipper.

However, Shahid Afridi, the father-in-law of Shaheen, denied those claims, saying that the decision was entirely Mohammad Hafeez and the decision of PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf. Pakistan cricket team:  Meet the new leaders of Men in Green “Shaheen as captain is entirely Mohammad Hafeez’s and the PCB chairman’s decision. I have nothing to do with that. I never lobbied for Shaheen’s captaincy. In fact, I have always wanted to keep Shaheen away from the captaincy,” Afridi told on Samaa TV. Afridi went onto say that he was not in favour of Babar’s removal as Test captain, whereas he wanted Mohammad Rizwan to be the limited-overs skipper. Also read: Upheaval in Pakistan cricket is nothing new. Here's a list on constant controversy and changes “I was never in favour of Babar Azam’s removal. I also told the PCB chairman that he should not remove Babar from the captaincy. I wanted Mohammad Rizwan to be the white-ball captain and Babar to be the captain of the Test team,” added the 46-year-old. Pakistan finished fifth at the end of the World Cup league stage with just eight points. Just a few days after the exit, Babar announced his decision to resign as captain, on the micro-blogging platform ‘X’. “Today, I am stepping down as the captain of Pakistan in all formats,” Babar had announced on X, formerly Twitter, after meeting PCB chief Zakar Ashraf in Lahore. In the same meeting, former captain Mohammad Hafeez was appointed as team director, replacing Mickey Arthur in the new set-up. “It’s a difficult decision but I feel it is the right time for this call. I will continue to represent Pakistan as a player in all three formats,” he had said in a statement.