T20 World Cup 2024: PCB clears air around reaching Shaheen Afridi for vice-captaincy role

Pakistan made a bold call when they decided to axe Shaheen Shah Afridi as T20I skipper and handed the reigns back to Babar Azam. After the ODI World Cup in 2023, Babar resigned from the post and Shaheen was made the new T20I captain. However, under his leadership, Pakistan performed poorly in the away series against New Zealand, following which, the new PCB management axed him from the role and Babar was reappointed.

Ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup, multiple reports claimed that the PCB officials have reached out to Afridi and handed him the offer of becoming the vice-captain of the team. However, PCB on Sunday brushed away all the rumours and stated that they had no interaction with the young pacer regarding the vice-captain role. The board also issued a statement confirming that it was ‘unanimously’ decided against the appointment of any vice-captain for the global tournament.

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“During Friday’s selection committee meeting, discussions on the vice-captaincy took place. However, it was unanimously decided not to appoint anyone. As such, no offer was made to any player,” PCB said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Pakistan are currently busy playing a four-match T20I series against England The first match of the series was called off due to rain while in the second one, the Men in Green suffered a 23-run defeat. Afridi picked up three wickets, giving away 36 runs in his four overs as England posted 183 runs on the board in the first innings.

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When it came to the chase, Pakistan lost two early wickets but Babar and Fakhar Zaman took control of the situation. Babar made 32 runs off 26 balls, while Fakhar hit 45 runs off 21 balls but as soon as they got out, wickets fell like a pack of cards. They were bundled for 160 runs as England picked up a comfortable win. With that, England are currently leading 1-0 in the series.