The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and coach Jason Gillespie have confidence in Shan Masood to keep leading the national team in Test matches for the upcoming busy international season. However, they have not yet decided about Babar Azam’s role as captain in shorter formats of the game. Pakistan will play a three-match Test series against England in October and also has series planned against Bangladesh, South Africa, and the West Indies.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) organized a meeting in Lahore on Wednesday. Important people from the board, national team selectors, coach Gillespie, white ball formats coach Gary Kirsten, and assistant coach Azhar Mahmood were all there. They talked about how the Pakistan team did not perform well in the recent T20 World Cup in the Americas.
“A meeting took place to talk about plans for the national team’s future in both one-day and Test cricket,” said someone who knows about what happened. Masood, who became the Test team captain before the trip to Australia this year, got full backing. “Shan was given the go-ahead at the meeting to keep being the Test captain for the matches against Bangladesh, England, South Africa, and the West Indies from August to January,” he explained.
Despite much discussion, no decision was made regarding Babar’s leadership role in white ball cricket. Babar faced criticism for his perceived weaknesses and leadership abilities, particularly during the T20 World Cup. In the meantime, former Pakistani fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz called for the entire selection committee to be removed, accusing them of being collectively incompetent during the ICC event and its preparation. “The selection committee has failed as a group and should be dismissed as a group for their shortcomings and incompetence,” Nawaz stated.
Nawaz mentioned that he had repeatedly advised PCB officials not to assign any administrative duties to the dismissed selector, Wahab Riaz. He stated, “I have documented my concerns in letters to Zaka Ashraf and Mohsin Naqvi about Wahab’s questionable history and his inadequate skills for administrative roles. Unfortunately, my advice was ignored. I was aware that Wahab was not suitable for any position, yet he was appointed as a selector, advisor, and manager. He did not succeed in any of these roles,” he explained.
