The wicket keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan stopped being the One Day International (ODI) captain of the national team in a landmark development in the realm of Pakistani cricket. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has already accused the young pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi will lead the upcoming trio of match ODIs with South Africa which will be introduced on November 4, 2025.
Pakistan National Cricket Team
Babar Azam has been supplanted by Rizwan as the best in October 2024, and has left all his captainship positions and the head of the group until they come back in the winning performances by tournaments with Australia and the Netherlands. Nevertheless, they never even made the semi finals of the 2025 Champions Trophy and were losing to the West Indies in a sequence. As it has been suggested by the sources, the decision of shifting the PCB has not been grounded on the performance of the team alone but on the problems that are associated with the team culture and chemistry.
Mohammad Rizwan Pro Palestine Stance, Mike Hesson Behind Sacking?
Mike Hesson, Aqib Javed coach and the chief selector were very instrumental in championing the change of leadership. Rizwan is said to have promoted the culture of religion in the team such as his open support to Palestine, which may have contributed to the move. Shaheen Afridi who has been the T20I captain of Pakistan, but later relinquished his role to the same position in 2024 has a lot of experience in the same role. The decision to appoint Afridi has been dubbed as the indicator of a new focus on the performance and integration of the team since he will head Tri Nation Series 2024/25. The PCB has not officially mentioned the reasons why Rizwan was dropped, and speculation and argument become a possibility among the fans, as well as analysts. As Pakistan is on the verge of playing the South Africa series, the question that will be among the minds of most people is how Afridi is going to handle the team and how they would perform in this drastic change.
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