Wicket-keeper batsman Muhammad Rizwan has been appointed as the vice captain of the Pakistan T20 squad.
Shaheen Shah Afridi was named T20 Captain last year following the end of the ICC ODI Men’s World Cup 2024. Now Shaheen and Rizwan will be leading the T20 side in the upcoming series against New Zealand.
The development was announced on the X account of the Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday morning. “@iMRizwanPak has been appointed vice-captain of Pakistan’s T20I team,” the board wrote in its post.
Rizwan has replaced Shadab Khan for the post. Shadab Khan has been underperforming lately and has upset his fans with his poor performance.
Meanwhile, Shaheen Shah Afridi has replaced Babar Azam as the skipper of the Pakistan T20 team.
Earlier, Shahid Afridi too had vouched for the appointment of Rizwan as the captain of T20 side instead of Shaheen Shah Afridi. The development came after Chairman PCB Zaka Ashraf met the player in Australia recently.
Talking about Rizwan, Afridi said: “[I admire Rizwan’s] hardwork and focus level. His best quality, which I like most, is only focusing on his game and paying no heed to who doing what and what not. He is really a fighter!”
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“I want to see him [Rizwan] as the T20 captain but mistakenly, Shaheen became the skipper,” Afridi said on a lighter note while talking about the team.
Rizwan was among the players who performed brilliantly in a three-match series in Australia. Agha Salman and Aamer Jamal also performed well on the tour.
Australia, however, whitewashed Pakistan in the Test series. Shan Masood, the new captain of the Pakistan Test squad, heaped praise for his decent performance as the captain. Cricket fans and commentators praised his field placement plans. He, however, could not score big with the bat. Shaheen Shah Afridi did not play the third Test as he was rested for the upcoming T2O series.