Azhar Ali retained as Pakistan skipper for West Indies series

Despite being under the scrutiny from all fronts, Pakistan ODI skipper Azhar Ali has managed to keep his captaincy spot for the upcoming 3-match ODI series against West Indies to be held in UAE. Pakistan suffered an embarrassing 4-1 series defeat in their recent ODI campaign against England.

Azhar Ali had a good series on the personal note, with two scores of 80-plus to his name. However, the team failed to click as a unit and Pakistan suffered serious hammering from the hosts. It was speculated that Ali could well be replaced in Pakistan’s next home assignment. However, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have decided to back their under-fire skipper for one more series.

There were also reports of the board asking the right handed batsman to step down as the skipper prior to the commencement of the West Indies series. Now, the PCB Chief Operating Officer (COO) Subhan Ahmed affirmed in a statement that the board is settling in with Ali for their forthcoming series. “The selection committee has the right to select a captain in any format, but Azhar will lead the national side in the upcoming series,” quoted Ahmed.

Azhar Ali took over the limited-overs captaincy reigns last year after Pakistan made an exit from the ICC World Cup 2015. Since then, he has led Pakistan in 26 matches and has managed to win just 10 and has faced defeats in 15. A characteristic stat, not much in favor of Ali, is that 5 of those 10 wins have been against the low ranked sides of Ireland and Zimbabwe. Pakistan are currently placed at number 9 in the ICC ODI rankings.

Also read – Rohit Sharma gives a fitting reply to his critics

Test captain Misbah Ul Haq believes that it is the poor domestic circuit pattern that is responsible for the ODI woes of the team. He also cited that it is the captain who often feels the heat for the failure of the entire team. “I have long been saying that we need to lay greater emphasis on one-day cricket in our domestic system, and play more one-day games, because you can’t evolve by playing a maximum of five 50-over matches a year in the domestic circuit. In Pakistan, there is a perception that the captain is the only one responsible for everything. Cricket is a team game and every player has to contribute,” quoted Misbah.

However, ever since taking over as the captaincy reigns, Azhar has scored over 1006 runs at an average close to 40.