Australia vs Pakistan, Cricket Series Announced

hi5in1 (26)in #sports • 4 years ago

Azhar Ali has been removed as Pakistan Test captain, with limited-overs leader Babar Azam replacing him in the role. That makes Azam, 26, the Pakistan captain across all three formats, bringing to an end Azhar's brief second stint.

In just over a year as the man at the helm in Test cricket, Ali led Pakistan in eight Test matches, which included two wins - against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - and three defeats, which led to series losses against Australia and England.

As ESPNcricinfo reported last month, there had been serious discussions at the PCB about the possibility of a younger replacement to Ali as Test captain. Ali's annual appraisal was carried out in September, with him meeting PCB CEO Wasim Khan, believed to carry significant influence with the board chairman Ehsan Mani - whom the ultimate decision rests with. At the time, Azam was an obvious leading contender for the role, given he remains one of the few players in Pakistan guaranteed a starting spot in all three formats. Unlike Ali or his predecessor Sarfaraz Ahmed, there are no questions over Azam's form with the bat, a cause of instability for both men over their tenures.

Azam's appointment marks an inexorable rise in profile for the batsman, who, in the last few years, has pulled away as Pakistan's best batsman in all formats by some distance. That inevitably made him a candidate as captain, given Ahmed's tenure ultimately came to an end due to a sustained dip with the bat. From that perspective, it was something of a surprise to see the PCB turn to Ali, who, at the time he was appointed, was suffering from his own loss of form. Despite scoring a couple of hundreds as captain, his overall dip in form was a palpable presence throughout his time.

Azam, meanwhile, began to settle into the Test side fairly quickly after a slightly rocky start in the format. A half-century in Centurion on a day he famously took apart Dale Steyn even as his team-mates faltered was a harbinger of his growing comfort in the format. Since the start of 2018, only four men have scored more Test runs than Azam, with none of them even remotely able to match his average of 62.90. He was handed the white-ball captaincy at the same time Ali was given the Test reigns. In nine innings as T20I captain, Azam has scored six half-centuries, averaging a shade under 56 and striking at 142.70.

Azam's first assignment will be a two-Test series against New Zealand in December, preceded by a three-match T20I series. The jury remains very much out on Azam's tactical nous as captain, but the results so far - over admittedly a small sample size - are around where you might expect them. Pakistan have won five of the seven T20Is under his captaincy. The recently-concluded ODI series against Zimbabwe were the only 50-over games Pakistan played since Azam was appointed captain, with two wins and a defeat that went to a Super Over.

4 years ago in #sports by hi5in1 (26)

$0.00

1 vote

STEEM 0.23

TRX 0.12

JST 0.029

BTC 66120.88

ETH 3555.65

USDT 1.00

SBD 3.12

Australia vs Pakistan, Cricket Series Announced

Coin Marketplace