‘Pressure on him will be limited to his batting’ – Shoaib Malik advises Babar Azam to relinquish captaincy role

Former Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik advised Babar Azam to relinquish the captaincy role in order to have more focus on his batting. The statements come after there was much speculation and controversy over the personnel changes and having a new captain across all formats.

Additionally, the PCB was pondering over the idea of reviewing the team structure which included the change in captaincy after Najam Sethi took over the role as the chairman in December 2022. With the mixed opinions on his captaincy making headlines, former cricketer Shoaib Malik opined on Babar stepping down from the role and focusing on his game.

"Babar Azam is a great batter but we do injustice by putting his leadership qualities and batting ability on the same scale. This will help (stepping down from the role) Babar Azam make more records on an international level as the pressure on him will be limited to his batting,” Malik said while speaking on the Geo News programme, ‘Score’.

Retained Babar as captain because he is our main player: Najam Sethi

In the 2022/23 season at home, Pakistan endured a dismal campaign against England, losing 3-0 in Tests and 4-3 in T20Is, drew 0-0 in a Test series and suffered a 2-1 defeat in an ODI series against New Zealand. Soon after Sethi took charge of the office, the PCB made Shan Masood the vice-captain in ODIs when the batter last featured in the 50-over format in mere five matches in 2019.

Moreover, the management decided to rest the core side- Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf and Shaheen Afridi in the recently concluded series against Afghanistan, with Shadab Khan leading the team. However, the Men in Green lost the three-match T20I series 2-1 and are currently in the midst of the five-match T20I series against New Zealand.

Despite the speculations, Najam Sethi rubbished claims of dismissing Babar as the captain and stated that it was the media that ‘discussed’ much of the captain’s future.

"For now, we have retained Babar as a captain because he is our main player. His captaincy is often discussed in media, we have nothing to do with it," Sethi told in an interview.