Former Pakistani cricketer weighs in on the captaincy debate between Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan.
According to Times of India, former batsman Basit Ali endorsed Mohammad Rizwan over Babar Azam as a captain of the men’s national team.
After the poor performance of Azam for a certain period of time, there had been speculation about the possible removal of the opening batsman from the white-ball captaincy.
Wicket-keeper batsman Rizwan has appeared a potential candidate for the captaincy in the ouster of Azam.
Ali on his YouTube channel, referring to the 32-year-old captaincy in the on-going domestic tournament, the Champions One-Day Cup, said, “The way Rizwan led the side, he proved there is no better skipper than him. He has shown it with his captaincy. He read the pitch; it is a big thing. Even Babar cannot do that.”
He further emphasised, “If you do not make him captain at this time, then it is a loss for Pakistan. This is the best time you should make Rizwan the captain.”
Pakistan recently suffered a historic defeat from Bangladesh in a two-match test series at home.
After the poor performance in the series, Azam slipped out of the top 10 in the International Cricket Council Men’s Test batting ranking for the first time since December 2019. He is now on number 12.
To note, Rizwan is the only Pakistani batter in the top 10 of the ICC Men’s Test batting ranking.
