Former national team mentor and former Australian batsman Matthew Hayden has expressed disappointment over the decision to remove Babar Azam from the captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team.
After the poor performance in the World Cup, Babar Azam was criticized a lot on media and social media, and then after consulting his close people, Babar Azam met Chairman PCB Zaka Ashraf in Lahore two days ago. He resigned from the captaincy of the national team.
Babar Azam announced his retirement from T20, Test, and ODI captaincy and said on social media that he will continue to play for Pakistan as a player.
On behalf of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Shan Masood has been appointed as Test captain in place of Babar Azam and Shaheen Shah Afridi as T20 captain while the decision regarding captaincy of the ODI team will be taken later.
‘You are the captain of hearts’, Rizwan and fellow cricketers’ message to Babar after leaving the leadership
Babar Azam stepped down from the captaincy of all three formats
In this regard, while discussing on the well-known cricket website Cricinfo, former famous Australian batsman Matthew Hayden gave an analysis on the performance of the Pakistani team in the World Cup and said that Naseem Shah was injured in the tournament, while Shaheen Shah Afridi’s performance was concerned. He was injured in the cup.
He said that Fakhar Zaman could not perform at the right time in this tournament and when Fakhar performed, it might have been too late for Pakistan.
The former Test cricketer said that both Pakistan spinners Muhammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan did not perform well in 2023, both could not bowl on the right line in the World Cup.
Matthew Hayden further said that Pakistan faced various challenges in the World Cup, I think that team performance is more important than captaincy for Pakistan cricket.
He said whoever decided on Babar Azam’s captaincy ignored the facts because Babar Azam’s batting average as a captain is 50, he is a natural leader and I think his leadership skills are on him. Fingers raised prematurely, he is a player to be admired in the world of cricket, I am both disappointed and surprised to see Babar removed from the captaincy.
