{"id":228542,"date":"2025-10-20T22:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T22:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228542\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T22:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T22:54:07","slug":"rizwan-sacked-shaheen-afridi-named-new-pakistan-odi-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228542\/","title":{"rendered":"Rizwan sacked, Shaheen Afridi named new Pakistan ODI captain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mohammad Rizwan<\/a> has been sacked as Pakistan<\/a> ODI captain, with Shaheen Shah Afridi<\/a> replacing him. The decision was announced by the PCB shortly after the first day of the ongoing Test match<\/a> between Pakistan and South Africa in Rawalpindi, a Test both Rizwan, 33, and Afridi, 25, are currently playing.<\/p>\n

No reason was provided for replacing Rizwan; indeed, the wicketkeeper batter was not even mentioned in the official statement. The decision, according to the PCB, was taken after a meeting in Islamabad between the selection committee and the white-ball head coach Mike Hesson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rizwan’s removal was all but inevitable when the PCB put out a statement<\/a> over the weekend, pointedly declining to confirm him as ODI captain ahead of the white-ball leg of the South Africa tour. Instead, it said Hesson had asked PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi to convene a meeting with the selection and advisory committee to appoint a new captain.<\/p>\n

ESPNcricinfo understands the desire to replace Rizwan was not specifically at the behest of the head coach, but enjoyed wider backing at the highest level of the PCB’s decision-making process.<\/p>\n

Afridi’s last foray into white-ball captaincy was an unhappy one, when he was tapped to lead the T20I team ahead of a series against New Zealand in January 2024. Pakistan ended up losing 4-1 before he was replaced in similar circumstances<\/a> to Rizwan’s sacking right now, with chairman Naqvi pointedly declining to confirm he would continue in the role. Afridi was replaced by Babar Azam a week later.<\/p>\n

While Pakistan had different captains for all formats – a situation that will continue – Rizwan was until recently perceived to be the most secure of a group that includes Shan Masood and Salman Ali Agha. Since becoming captain of the ODI side last year, Rizwan is four runs short of the highest scorer for Pakistan<\/a>, averaging just under 42. He led Pakistan to series wins in Australia and South Africa in 2024, though results this year have dipped, most notably with an ignominious first-round exit at a home Champions Trophy.<\/p>\n

Afridi pulls on the armband in good form in the format; he was Pakistan’s leading wicket-taker last year<\/a> in ODI cricket, and central to their away wins in South Africa and Australia. Since the start of the 2023 World Cup, no fast bowler from a Full Member nation has more wickets than his 45<\/a>, which have come at more than two wickets a game.<\/p>\n

Afridi’s first assignment as ODI captain is the white-ball series against South Africa, which comprises three ODIs in Faisalabad next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mohammad Rizwan has been sacked as Pakistan ODI captain, with Shaheen Shah Afridi replacing him. The decision was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-228542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}