Babar Azam is confirmed to be the captain of Pakistan ODI team. The right-handed, top-order batsman has constantly been a source of pride for the country and his performance has always been consistent. Currently he is the number one batsman in the T20 rankings with 1471 runs in just 38 matches played.
Azam is now the captain of both ODI and T20 teams, whereas Azhar Ali will remain the captain of Test team. Along with this announcement, PCB also announced the Central Contract list with some heavy changes.
Central Contract Offered to Players
PCB has also announced the new Central Contract list that has been offered to the players for the upcoming match season. The season will consist of 9 test matches, 6 ODIs, 20 T20s as well as ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 and Asia Cup 2020.
Naseem Shah named in men's central contract list for 2020-21https://t.co/sLLfzETmCJ pic.twitter.com/av0Y3VtxUZ
— PCB Media (@TheRealPCBMedia) May 13, 2020
Shaheen Shah Afridi has been promoted, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Yasir Shah have been demoted, whereas Mohammad Amir, Wahab Rian and Hassan Ali have failed to make it to the contract list. The players who have made the list and their respective categories are listed below:
Category A
- Azhar Ali
- Babar Azam
- Shaheen Shah Afridi
Category B
- Abid Ali
- Asad Shafiq
- Haris Sohail
- Mohammad Abbas
- Mohammad Rizwan
- Sarfaraz Ahmed
- Shadab Khan
- Shan Masood
- Yasir Shah
Category C
- Fakhar Zaman
- Iftikhar Ahmed
- Imad Wasim
- Imam-ul-Haq
- Naseem Shah
- Usman Shinwari
Emerging Players’ Category
- Haider Ali
- Haris Rauf
- Mohammad Hasnain
Head Coach and Team Selector, Misbah-ul-Haq said, “I want to congratulate Azhar Ali and Babar Azam for getting captaincy extensions. This is absolutely the right decision as they also require certainty and clarity on their future roles. I am sure they will now start looking to the future and start planning so that they can build sides that can perform at the expected levels.”
Babar Azam’s captaincy status has been unclear for the most part of last year. After Sarfaraz Ahmed was removed from the position, it was expected that Azam will take the captaincy indefinitely, however, it wasn’t confirmed officially. With the clarification provided by PCB, Azam can work fully to gel the team together!
