Mohammad Rizwan sacked, Shaheen Afridi named Pakistan ODI captain

Shaheen Afridi has been appointed the captain of the Pakistan ODI team with immediate effect. The pace-bowling spearhead will begin his captaincy stint in the three-match ODI series against South Africa from November 4 to 8. He takes over the reins from Mohammad Rizwan who took up the position last year after Babar Azam had stepped down from the role.

This will not be the first time that Afridi will marshal the men in green. In early 2024, Afridi had been named Pakistan’s T20I captain but he led in a single bilateral series, against New Zealand away from home. Pakistan could only win the final game of that five-match series. Few months later, Babar was reinstated as captain of the T20I side before Salman Ali Agha assumed charge last year.

The decision to make Afridi captain was rubberstamped in a meeting with white-ball coach Mike Hesson, Director of High Performance Aqib Javed and other members of the selection committee. Rizwan, on the other hand, skippered Pakistan in 20 ODIs starting with the 2-1 win against Australia in his maiden assignment alongside a famous 3-0 whitewash against South Africa in December 2024. However, with a poor performance in the Champions Trophy where they were ousted after two games, Pakistan have opted to move away from Rizwan in a leadership role. He ends with nine wins and 11 defeats in his brief captaincy tenure.

Afridi has been an integral part of Pakistan’s white and red-ball squads with 194 international caps across the three formats. He was Pakistan’s leading wicket-taker last year in ODI cricket, and proved instrumental to their away wins in South Africa and Australia. Since the beginning of the 2023 World Cup, no fast bowler from a Full Member nation has more wickets than his 45, which have transpired at more than two wickets a match.