Former Pakistan batter Basit Ali has made a serious claim about the ongoing problems inside the national camp. Basit Ali has blamed an alleged rift between Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi over the captaincy for the Pakistan national cricket team’s downfall.
The former selector’s comments came after Pakistan suffered a heavy 194-run defeat to England in the Lord’s Test. Pakistan has now lost the Test series to England, having suffered crushing defeats in the first two Tests. They have been facing strong criticism for their poor performances. Earlier, Misbah-ul-Haq quits Pakistan selection committee after seven-player call.
The Pakistan national cricket team has gone through several leadership changes in recent years. Babar Azam stepped down as captain after the 2023 ODI World Cup, following which Shaheen Afridi was given the T20I captaincy.
However, after Pakistan struggled during the tour of New Zealand, Babar returned as captain. He was later removed again after Pakistan failed to reach the T20 World Cup 2024 semi-finals.
Pakistan has since continued to make changes and now has three different captains across formats. Babar leads the Test team, Shaheen is the ODI captain, and Salman Ali Agha leads the T20I side.
Basit Ali says the Babar-Afridi rift hurt Pakistan Cricket.
Basit Ali has openly said that the captaincy fight between Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi created a major divide inside the Pakistan camp. The former coach feels the person responsible for creating the gap between the two senior players needs to be identified.
He further pointed out that the effects of that disagreement are still visible in Pakistan cricket today. Basit also questioned Babar’s captaincy and said several decisions made during his leadership were not strong enough, and his return as Test captain has not seen any improvement.
Basit Ali said on the ‘Game Plan’ show: “Babar Azam is not a strong captain. I am not speaking about this based on the performance in England. He has made many wrong decisions. The main reason for Pakistan cricket's downfall is the rift between Shaheen and Babar. When there was a falling-out between the two over the captaincy, Pakistan cricket was ruined that day.”
He added, “Many statements were made, saying Shaheen is a very good bowler and Babar is a very good bowler. The rift, whoever created that, its side effects can be seen now.”
PCB make massive changes before Birmingham Test
Pakistan has witnessed another major shake-up ahead of the third and final Test against England in Birmingham. On Monday, the PCB decided to send seven players back home, including senior stars Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha.
The Test head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul were also removed from their roles. White-ball coach Mike Hesson will now take charge of the Test team for the final match. Interestingly, Babar Azam remains Pakistan’s Test captain after taking over from Shan Masood earlier this year.
Under Babar, Pakistan drew their two-match Test series against the West Indies. However, Shaheen Shah Afridi is currently out of favor in red-ball cricket. Babar also faces pressure after going four years without a Test century.
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