Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Shaheen Shah Afridi has been named T20I captain of Pakistan Men’s Cricket Team on Thursday, while Shan Masood will lead the Test side.
The left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah will lead Pakistan Men’s Team in the T20I format and his first assignment as captain will be the five-match T20I series in New Zealand from 12 to 21 January.
The 23-year-old Shaheen has bagged 64 wickets in 52 T20Is. Shaheen has also captained Lahore Qalandars in HBL PSL and has helped the side win the tournament twice in two years in the 2022 and 2023 editions.
Shan has been appointed captain till the end of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25. Shan’s first assignment as captain will be a three-match Test series against Australia in Australia starting from 14 December.
The 34-year-old Shan has featured in 30 Tests, scoring 1,597 runs, which includes four centuries and seven half-centuries.
The board is yet to announce the ODI captain as there are no scheduled 50-over series in the near future.
Shan and Shaheen were appointed captains after Babar Azam today stepped down from all three formats of the game. Pakistan’s captain in the ODI format will be announced in due course.
Former captain Mohammad Hafeez was appointed as the Director of Pakistan men’s side. The announcement was made after PCB sacked entire coaching staff including director Mickey Arthur, head coach Grant Bradburn and batting coach Andrew Puttick.