Shahid Afridi Admits Rizwan Should Have Been the T20 Captain Instead of Shaheen

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has voiced his support for wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan to be the T20I captain instead of fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Afridi, speaking at an event in Australia, gave a lot of praise to Rizwan and suggested that he would prefer Rizwan as captain in T20 cricket over his son-in-law, Shaheen.

Shahid 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.”

He jokingly added, “I want to see him [Rizwan] as the T20 captain but mistakenly, Shaheen became the skipper.”

Afridi’s straightforward remarks elicited laughter from the crowd and the players on stage, including Rizwan, Harif Rauf, and Shaheen, couldn’t help but crack a smile.

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The 23-year-old fast bowler had taken over the role from the classy batter Babar Azam back in November. Shaheen played 52 T20Is for Pakistan and took 64 wickets with an average of 22.73.

Shaheen had also captained Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and led the team to victory in consecutive years during the 2022 and 2023 editions.

This wasn’t the first time that Afridi had voiced his opinion about Shaheen’s captaincy role. He had previously disclosed that he had advised Shaheen against accepting the captaincy for Lahore Qalandars, suggesting that he should focus more on his bowling for a year or two.