‘Shaheen Shah Afridi Was Removed Wrongly From Captaincy’: Rashid Latif On Pakistan’s Bowling Downfall Against New Zealand

New Delhi: Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif reckons that there are internal problems in the Pakistan Cricket team since the cricket board removed Shaheen Shah Afridi as the skipper and reappointed Babar Azam as the new leader ahead of the T20I series against New Zealand.

Latif also said that the bowling unit has been letting down the Pakistan cricket team since the New Zealand T20I series.

“The bowling has been letting Pakistan down since the tour of New Zealand. Since removing Shaheen Afridi from the captaincy, problems could be seen,” he said on his YouTube channel.

“Shaheen Afridi was removed wrongly from the captaincy and when Babar was reappointed, he showed his weakness. Whoever has handed him the captaincy will definitely use him. The team would be from outside, players will be selected by somebody else and every other decision would be taken by someone else, nothing will change in Pakistan here,” he added.

Shaheen Afridi was appointed as the new T20I skipper after Pakistan cricket team failed to perform in the Asia Cup and ODI World Cup which was played in 2023.

Shaheen’s captaincy tenure was short-lived. Pakistan have played only one international series under Shaheen’s leadership. It was a 4-1 defeat to New Zealand in a T20I series in New Zealand.

However, there is still a question mark on who will lead Pakistan in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 which will be hosted by USA and West Indies later this year as the cricket board have not yet announced the squad.

Pakistan will reportedly announce the sqaud after the T20Is against England which will start from May 22 and Babar will lead the side in the series.

Here is Pakistan squad for Ireland and England series: Babar Azam (Capt), Muhammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Irfan Khan Niazi, Usman Khan, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Usama Mir, Abrar Ahmed, Muhammad Amir, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Abbas Afridi and Aamir Jamal.