Currently Pakistan’s vice-captain in ODIs and T20Is, Shadab Khan has shared the field with many brilliant cricketers. Speaking on Twitter Spaces, the 23-year-old analysed the differences between two captains he played under; Sarfaraz Ahmed and Babar Azam.
Pointing out the key difference between the duo, Shadab said, “Sarfaraz Ahmed was an active captain in the field whereas Babar Azam does not depict his emotions on the field much. Being a captain of your country is difficult. Babar Azam used to take pressure early on but he’s well settled as a captain now.”
During the conversation, Shadab also quipped that current captain Babar has lost his smile after taking on the role. Sarfaraz lost his captaincy after Pakistan’s performance in the 2019 Cricket World Cup, where they couldn’t qualify for the semi-finals as their net run rate was lower than New Zealand. During their campaign, they won five out of nine matches, losing three and a no result fixture. He was sacked from his role ahead of Pakistan tour of Australia in October 2019, with Azhar Ali and Babar named as skippers of the Test and T20I sides respectively. Babar also took over the Test captaincy role on November 10, 2020.
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Recently former Pakistan cricketer Javed Miandad made a huge statement on Babar after Pakistan’s victory against Sri Lanka in the first Test in Galle. “Babar Azam is mature now. He should be the captain of the team until he retires from the game”, he stated.
He also praised Babar’s captaincy during the first Test, hailing his ‘cool’ personality. “Team is playing as a combined unit, and the credit goes to our players as well as our no.1 captain. He is our captain cool. He doesn’t lose his temper,” Miandad said.
“He led the team brilliantly. The most important thing is he is performing brilliantly himself. He leads from the front. Often, if a captain doesn’t perform, it can affect the team negatively and it leads to his downfall.”