Babar Azam has been appointed as the new Test skipper for Pakistan as he replaces Azhar Ali who has struggled in the last couple of seasons.
Pakistan’s Test team has a new captain after the country’s Cricket Board appointed Babar Azam as the new skipper for the side ahead of the two-match Test series against New Zealand beginning in December. This ends Azhar Ali’s tenure as captain which lasted for one year. In that period, Azhar Ali led Pakistan to series wins against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at home but it was punctuated by series losses to Australia and England overseas. According to an ESPNCricinfo report, the reason for appointing Babar Azam as the skipper of Pakistan was because the PCB top brass wanted some stability.
Azhar Ali plays only Tests while Sarfaraz Ahmed, the limited-overs skipper has also fallen out of favour. Babar Azam is the only Pakistan cricketer who is assured of a spot in all three sides as he has emerged as one of the best batsman to have come out of the Pakistan team in the modern era. Already, there have been some positive indications of Babar Azam’s captaincy although it has come against weaker opponents. In the series against Zimbabwe, Pakistan won the ODI series 2-1 while the T20Is was whitewashed 3-0. It was a good start to Babar Azam’s captaincy but questions still remain.
Azhar Ali’s place uncertain
Since the start of 2018, only four Pakistan batsmen have scored more Test runs than Babar Azam, with none of them even able to match his average of 62.90. He was handed the white-ball captaincy at the same time Azhar Ali was given the Test reigns. In nine innings as T20I captain, Azam has scored six half-centuries, averaging a shade under 56 and striking at 142.70. In this period, he is best remembered for attacking Dale Steyn in the Centurion Test of 2018 in which he scored a half-century.
Azhar Ali was handed the limited-overs captaincy after the 2015 World Cup but was summarily removed after a dismal tour of Australia at the start of 2017 where the side lost 1-4 in the ODIs and whitewashed 0-3 in the Tests. Last year, upon being appointed Test captain, Azhar Ali’s tenure started with nightmarish tour of Australia, with Azhar Ali's own struggles against the short ball an issue as he breached double figures just once all series.
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