{"id":4242,"date":"2023-11-16T02:26:12","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T02:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/?p=4242"},"modified":"2023-11-16T02:26:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T02:26:37","slug":"babar-azam-steps-down-as-pakistan-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/babar-azam-steps-down-as-pakistan-captain\/","title":{"rendered":"Babar Azam steps down as Pakistan captain after disastrous World Cup campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>Experts and critics had called for a change of guard and Babar Azam was summoned for a post-mortem of team&#8217;s performance by PCB&#8217;s management committee head <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espncricinfo.com\/story\/pcb-chief-zaka-ashraf-gets-three-month-extension-1407149\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zaka Ashraf<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Babar Azam on Wednesday quit as Pakistan captain across formats, four days after his team&#8217;s elimination from the World Cup, where the former champions finished fifth. Pakistan lost five of their nine games, including a shock defeat against Afghanistan, bringing Babar&#8217;s leadership under scanner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Experts and critics had called for a change of guard and Babar was summoned for a post-mortem of team&#8217;s performance by PCB&#8217;s management committee head Zaka Ashraf. Babar Azam  announced his decision on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-container\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8hZqS9JH0M\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/8hZqS9JH0M<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Babar Azam (@babarazam258) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/babarazam258\/status\/1724780099101233253?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">November 15, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Today, I am stepping down as captain of Pakistan from all formats. It&#8217;s a difficult decision but I feel this is right time for this call,&#8221; Babar wrote in his statement, posted on X.<br>Babar faced scathing criticism for his team selection and many accused him of creating a coterie with the players of his liking, including Imam ul Haq, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espncricinfo.com\/cricketers\/mohammad-nawaz-348148\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Mohammed Nawaz<\/strong><\/a>, Shadab Khan to name a few. Babar Azam  made it clear that he will support the new skipper in every way possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I will continue to represent Pakistan as a player in all three formats. I am here to support the new captain and the team with my experience and dedication. I want to express my sincere thanks to Pakistan Cricket Board for entrusting me with this significant responsibility,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Babar-Azam-Pakistan.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Babar-Azam-Pakistan.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Babar-Azam-Pakistan-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Babar-Azam-Pakistan-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Babar-Azam-Pakistan-360x203.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Also Read: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/virat-kohli-breaks-sachin-tendulkars-records\/\"><strong>Virat Kohli breaks Sachin Tendulkar\u2019s records of most runs and most 50-plus scores in a World Cup; most tons in ODIs<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ashraf, on his part, also copped a lot of flak when he issued a statement in the middle of the tournament that the squad selected for World Cup was done at the behest of erstwhile chairman Inzamam ul Haq and skipper Babar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He had mentioned that a decision would be taken at the end of the tournament and it was clear that Babar didn&#8217;t have PCB&#8217;s back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During his tenure, Pakistan became No. 1 ranked team in ODIs on the back of some solid performances at home on placid pitches against second string teams from SENA countries and relatively weaker Asian teams. &#8220;Reaching the No. 1 spot in white ball formats was a result of collective effort of players, coaches and management,&#8221; he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was made the captain in 2019 and he admitted that he has experienced both highs and lows after he first got a call from PCB informing of their decision of appointing him the leader of the national team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Over the past four years, I have experienced many highs and lows on and off the field but I have wholeheartedly and passionately tried to maintain Pakistan&#8217;s pride and respect in cricket world,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Experts and critics had called for a change of guard and Babar Azam was summoned for a post-mortem of team&#8217;s performance by PCB&#8217;s management committee head Zaka Ashraf. Babar Azam on Wednesday quit as Pakistan&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,298],"tags":[382,98,209,218,134],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4246,"href":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4242\/revisions\/4246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totalcric.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}