Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to remove Shan Masood as the Test captain and has turned once again to Babar Azam for the role. Babar, who led the side in 20 Test matches from 2021 to November 2023, will begin his secont stint with the away two-Test tour against West Indies.
Failure to win games cost Shan captaincy
Shan was appointed as the red-ball captain after Babar resigned from the position in November 2023. Aaqib Javed, Pakistan’s high-performance director, cited Pakistan’s constant defeats as the reason behind the decision.
“We saw many close Test matches [under Shan’s captaincy]. But a few things were not being addressed. Like the Centurion Test, South Africa’s two batters at No. 10 [for the tenth wicket] put on a 60-70 run partnership [51 runs]. The game was in our hands. Against the West Indies in Multan, in the second Test, the team was rolled over easily.”
Since taking over, Pakistan have won only four out of 16 Tests. That record places him among the least successful Test captains in Pakistan’s history in terms of win-loss ratio.
“The captain has a responsibility to finish games. Same with the South Africa Tests at home. Some things are the responsibility of the team, some are the responsibility of the selectors, and some are the responsibility of the captain. The captain’s responsibility also includes maintaining the team’s over rate, taking DRS decisions, making the right call at the toss.”
He also holds the joint fourth-worst record among Test captains who have led their sides in more than five matches. Additionally, he has not won a single away Test during his captaincy stint. His worst came as he led Pakistan to a second consecutive 2-0 whitewash against Bangladesh, where discussions of his axing began.
Babar’s time as a captain
Babar, as a captain, did decently during his first stint. In fact, it was his failure to bring good results in white-ball formats that led him to leave the Test captaincy as well. In 20 games, he oversaw Pakistan’s wins in ten games, including a 2-0 win versus South Africa.
His own form while captaining, however, saw many ups and downs, though notably more downs than ups. His average as a captain is as many as 12 runs less than when he plays as a specialist batter. He went through his most incredible rough patches during his time as a captain and seemed to be just now coming out of it.
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