Babar Azam likely to be dethroned as Pakistan's white-ball captain-reports

Pakistan's star batsman Babar Azam is set to lose his white-ball captaincy, as reported by Cricket Pakistan. Pakistan cricket has been going through a torrid period having lost the two-Test home series against Bangladesh recently. Men in Green were thrashed by the Tigers in both the Tests at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. 

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Saud Shakeel, Pakistan's Test vice-captain, has been selected as one of the captains for the Champions One Cay Cup, alongside Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Haris and Mohammad Rizwan. According to the report, PCB may appoint new white-ball captain for its forthcoming tour of Australia, starting from November 4.  

Babar Azam has been going through a lean patch, having not scored a half-century in his last 16 innings in the red ball cricket. In the second Test against Bangladesh, the 29-year-old  registered a first innings score of 31 off 71 balls, while the right-hand batsman was dismissed for just 11 runs in the second innings. 

Babar gave up his captaincy after the ICC ODI World Cup in 2023, where Pakistan failed to progress to knockout stage. However he was reinstated for the 2024 T20 World Cup in the USA and Caribbean Islands.  Pakistan, who were placed in Group A, alongside India, USA, Canada and Ireland, got eliminated in the group stage after losing out to hosts USA and eventual champions India.  

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• cricket
• Babar Azam
• PCB
• Pakistan cricket team
• Mohammad Rizwan
• Saud Shakeel