The top batsman of the Pakistan national cricket team, Babar Azam is now all set to take over the captaincy role in the ODI cricket. The 25-year-old batsman is already leading the national team in the shorter version of the game.
After facing consistent failure in the international game, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) dropped Sarfaraz Ahmed from Test and T20 squad in October last year. The board named Azhar Ali as the captain of the team in the red-ball game while Azam was named to lead in T20I.
However, it is not an easy decision for the board to replace the now-former skipper, Sarfaraz in the limited-overs as well. Although Pakistan could not make it to the semi-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, Sarfaraz led the team to win five matches. And not to forget the glorious Champions Trophy in 2017 that came under the captaincy of the wicketkeeper-batsman.
Pakistan won the title by defeating none other than but their arch-rival India by a whopping of 180 runs in the final of the tournament. Sarfaraz’s bowlers stroke down the chasing Men in Blue for mere 158 runs in less than 31 overs.
Babar Azam as the ideal choice to replace Sarfaraz Ahmed
Although Babar Azam was rumoured to lead the Pakistan team in the limited-overs game, the critics backed Sarfaraz for his successful career in the game. While the former cricketers such as Shoaib Akhtar criticized the 32-years-old cricketer for poor physique and lack of performance in the game lately, Sarfaraz was supported by the other cricketing fraternities of Pakistan.
The former chief selector of Pakistan and the head coach, Mohsin Khan voiced that replacing Sarfaraz would be a “great injustice” to the cricketer.
“There is no way the PCB or selectors can now justify not keeping Sarfaraz in the ODI team or replacing him with Babar Azam. It would be a great injustice with a fine captain and a player,” Mohsin Khan said.
Whereas, the former Pakistan Test cricket, Ramiz Raja said that being the number one batsman of the team, Babar Azam is the ideal choice to lead in the 50-overs game.
With 11 centuries in the 72 ODI innings till now, Azam has amassed a total of 3359 runs averaging above 50. And in the shorter version of the international game, the 25-years-old skipper has scored a total of 1471 runs in 38 innings he played till now.