Mohammad Rizwan most likely to be the next White-ball captain for Pakistan after the departure of Babar Azam

New Delhi: Babar Azam’s departure has led to a huge vacuum in the captaincy roles for the men in green in white ball cricket. The right-hand batsman earlier declared that he would be stepping away from the white ball scenario. Everyone was thinking about who would be taking charge of the national side. There were many candidates whose names had been put forward. However, Mohammad Rizwan had emerged as the favourite candidate to succeed as the skipper of the Pakistan national team.

However, the final verdict on the part of the board is yet to come. According to the reliable sources in the team:

The third Test against England finishes on 28th October and the squad has to leave for Australia the next day so the selectors would be announcing the white ball squad by Sunday…

Furthermore, the source said that the Board has now given the selectors the power to pick the captain. Aaqib, Azhar Ali and Aleem Dar have apparently already held talks with Rizwan and sought his willingness to take over this responsibility. However, it is also true that Babar forms one of the cornerstones of the national side. Naturally, the selectors are likely to include Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah in the white ball squad after being rested and sidelined for the last two Tests against England.

Babar walks away from the limelight…

Meanwhile, Babar Azam has surprisingly decided to step down as the captain of Pakistan’s white-ball team on Wednesday. The 29-year-old announced his retirement on his X (formerly Twitter) account. Pakistan has been through a rough patch under Babar’s tenure, not winning any major trophy which started back in 2019.

Earlier, in 2023, Babar gave up his captaincy after Pakistan’s debacle in the ODI World Cup. However, he was again handed over the job in March 2024 but he failed to guide Pakistan into the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup.