{"id":397927,"date":"2024-04-02T05:15:46","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T00:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/?p=397927"},"modified":"2024-04-02T05:15:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T00:15:46","slug":"shahid-afridi-surprised-by-babars-return-as-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/shahid-afridi-surprised-by-babars-return-as-captain\/","title":{"rendered":"Shahid Afridi \u2018surprised\u2019 by Babar\u2019s return as captain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> Islamabad<br \/>\nFormer captain Shahid Afridi has reacted to PCB\u2019s decision to reappoint Babar Azam as the white-ball captain of Pakistan.<br \/>\nThe former allrounder called for appointing batter Muhammad Rizwan as the captain of the national side following the sacking of Shaheen Afridi.<br \/>\n\u201cI am surprised by the decision by very experienced cricketers in the selection committee. I still believe that if change was necessary than Rizwan was the best choice!,\u201d said Afridi in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.<br \/>\nHowever, he said, that he extended full support to Babar Azam after his reappointment as the white-ball captain.<br \/>\n\u201cSince now the decision has been made I offer my full support and best wishes to team Pakistan and Babar Azam,\u201d Shahid Afridi added.<br \/>\nPCB on Sunday reinstated Babar Azam as the white-ball captain of the national team ahead of the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2024, scheduled to be played in the West Indies and the United States of America (USA).<br \/>\n\u201cFollowing unanimous recommendation from the PCB\u2019s selection committee, Chairman PCB Mohsin Naqvi has appointed Babar Azam as white-ball (ODI and T20I) captain of the Pakistan men\u2019s cricket team.\u201d<br \/>\nHis first assignment during his second tenure will be a five-match home T20I series against New Zealand, commencing on April 18 in Rawalpindi.<br \/>\nThe star batter had previously led Pakistan in white-ball cricket from 2019 to 2023 before stepping down following the team\u2019s dismal performance in the ICC World Cup 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Islamabad Former captain Shahid Afridi has reacted to PCB\u2019s decision to reappoint Babar Azam as the white-ball captain of Pakistan. The former allrounder called for appointing batter Muhammad Rizwan as the captain of the national side following the sacking of Shaheen Afridi. \u201cI am surprised by the decision by very experienced cricketers in the selection [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-397927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Shahid Afridi \u2018surprised\u2019 by Babar\u2019s return as captain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/shahid-afridi-surprised-by-babars-return-as-captain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shahid Afridi \u2018surprised\u2019 by Babar\u2019s return as captain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Islamabad Former captain Shahid Afridi has reacted to PCB\u2019s decision to reappoint Babar Azam as the white-ball captain of Pakistan. The former allrounder called for appointing batter Muhammad Rizwan as the captain of the national side following the sacking of Shaheen Afridi. \u201cI am surprised by the decision by very experienced cricketers in the selection [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/shahid-afridi-surprised-by-babars-return-as-captain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Lead Pakistan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DailyLeadPak\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-02T00:15:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Shahid-Afridi-\u2018surprised-by-Babars-return-as-captain.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"780\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta 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