For a little while now, it’s been rumoured that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will remove its current ODI and Test captains. Mohammad Rizwan, who was named the 50-over captain in October 2024, hasn’t had the greatest of results and recently lost an ODI series against the West Indies for the first time in 34 years.
Shan Masood was announced as Pakistan’s Test captain in November 2023, taking over from Babar Azam. However, his tenure hasn’t been great. Masood has only won one series in the last two years, winning just 3 matches out of 12. This includes a first-ever series defeat to Bangladesh. However, he did win his last Test series as captain against England.
Pakistan to continue with 3 captains
According to Cricket Pakistan, the PCB had denied making captaincy changes in either format. Their selection committee recently met to name Pakistan’s squad for the Asia Cup and announce the central contracts for 2025-26. But no discussions regarding appointing new skippers.
After Salman Ali Agha had shown promise across formats, it was speculated that he could take over as Pakistan’s all-format captain. His results as T20I captain haven’t been as desired, but the approach has been great with hitters replacing anchors. But for now, the PCB is fine with having split captaincy.
Generally, Asian boards aren’t too keen on having different captains across formats. But ever since Babar Azam stepped down as ODI captain after the 2023 ODI World Cup, the PCB hasn’t had any all-format captain. Since last year, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) hasn’t had an all-format captain.
