The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has reportedly lost faith in the leadership abilities of Shaheen Afridi and Shan Masood. Apparently, the officials have sent feelers to Babar Azam to take up Pakistan team captaincy once again.

Notably, Babar Azam quit as captain of the Pakistan team across all three formats after the ICC World Cup 2023 debacle after the Men in Green failed to qualify for the semi-finals and lost to India and Afghanistan amongst other teams in the tournament.

This led to Shaheen Afridi being named captain in T20s, while Shan Masood led Pakistan in Tests in Australia.

However, Pakistan was white-washed in the Test series by Australia and then Shaheen’s Pakistan captaincy debut led to a 1-4 series defeat in T20Is in New Zealand.

Sources in the PCB think-tank said the board had concluded that, with no viable option available, Babar was the best choice to lead the side again.

"The funny part is that the powers that be appear to have lost faith in Shan Masood and Shaheen Shah Afridi's ability to lead the national side in Test and T20 formats with the change in the board's chairmanship," a source was quoted by PTI.

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The source added that the interesting part is that Babar is now showing some attitude.

"Feelers have been sent out to Babar to find out if he is ready to take charge again and he has shown some reservations. Apparently, he wants some assurances from the board chairman," the source added.

Babar had held the position of captain in all formats since 2020 but poor performances in the Asia Cup and World Cup led to his axing.

"Shaheen, during Zaka's time, was seen as the savior of Pakistan cricket as T20 captain as he had won two finals for Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League. But he now appears to have run out of favor very quickly with the change of guard in the board,” another source said.

The source added that the current chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, was relying heavily on the advice of former players in taking important decisions.

(PTI inputs)