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Babar Azam has been removed/sacked as Pakistan’s captain of all formats. In my nine years as a writer, covering sports has very rarely seen me show an emotion once broken.

The news of Babar’s departure, boy was this a shock and in turn very hard to digest. Putting any potential personal feelings aside, I think the 29-year-old was the right man for the job.

The PCB think differently, hence the decision. It’s not just the captain that’s been dispensed off.

Bowling coach Albie Morkel and the popular returning coach Mickey Arthur have also been shown the door.

All-rounder Albie Morkel is now no longer working for the PCB, who seems to have a thing for South African quicks.

It’s been confirmed that Shaheen Afridi will captain the T20 side and Shaan Masood the test side. My thoughts on both appointments? Not impressed.

Wicket-keeper batsman Mohammed Rizwan has long been in the leadership circle, and now when it comes to his chance to shine, the carpet is taken from his feet.

Shaheen does have captaincy experience and is a two-time defending champion with Lahore Qalanders, but PSL and International cricket are two different things.

Cricket fans, I think he is a captain for the future, but keeping in mind his poor form (in parts) in the 2023 World Cup, he doesn’t need the added burden of captaincy.

Shadab would have been the favourite then by my logic, but he too is out of form. All signs point to Rizwan for the limited-overs teams at least.

An ODI captain hasn’t been announced just yet, but personally, I think it should be the Multan Sultans captain.

As for the test side, I don’t have too much of a problem with Shaan Masood being the skipper for the test side.

The 33-year-old has been very unfortunate not to have played more times for his country, but now being captain this will change.

I have never been a fan of bringing a player out from the cold and making him captain, nothing has changed here.

To sum it all up my final thoughts on the matter of Pakistan’s captaincy issue is that Babar changed the image of the side.

For so long had the men in green been a poor fielding side and a team that could be eccentric. Under the 29-year-old Babar, they became a side who were ice-cold when chasing big totals.

My other issue here is with the captaincy is not so much that there isn’t a better captain than Babar Azam, but rather the 11 players the new captain will pick will be largely the same.

I think this is close to their best side. Maybe Osama Mir for Shadab Khan would be one change.

It should be mentioned it’s not Babar’s fault that there is a lack of world-class spinners in the Pakistani squad at the moment. That’s not his fault, but let’s do the easy thing and blame him anyway.

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