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Star batter Babar Azam shocked the world on Tuesday night by stepping down from his role as the captain of Pakistan’s white-ball team.
He attributed his decision to the heavy workload and expressed his intention to focus more on his batting.
“Dear Fans, I’m sharing some news with you today. I have decided to resign as captain of the Pakistan men’s cricket team, effective as of my notification to the PCB and Team Management last month,” stated Babar Azam in a statement on his social media platforms.
“It’s been an honour to lead this team, but it’s time for me to step down and focus on my playing role,” he added.
However, the sources revealed that there are more factors involved in Babar’s decision rather than his personal desire to focus on his individual performance.
According to sources, Pakistan’s white-ball head coach Gary Kirsten wanted Babar Azam to continue as the captain of the ODI team. However, he was keen on replacing Babar as captain in T20I format.
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The sources further revealed that Gary submitted his report after Pakistan’s disastrous ICC T20 World Cup 2024 campaign in July and discussed his plans for a potential captaincy change with Babar as well.
However, Babar decided to quit as captain from both formats and informed a top official in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) before announcing his resignation.
Remember, this was Babar Azam’s second reign as Pakistan captain. His first tenure ended in November 2023 following Pakistan’s dismal run at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in India.
The star batter relinquished all-format captaincy but was reinstated as white-ball captain in March this year.
He led Pakistan in three bilateral T20I series against New Zealand, Ireland and England respectively before captaining the former champions in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
Pakistan had a lacklustre outing in the mega event as the 2009 champions, in a first, crashed out of the tournament from the group stage, mainly due to their gut-wrenching defeats against the United States of America (USA) and arch-rivals India.
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