Shahid Afridi quashes Shan Masood's captaincy rumours

Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi has revealed that Shan Masood was not under consideration for the ODIs against New Zealand and also quashed the rumours floating around on social media that talk about the latter being considered for national captaincy. Afridi added that Masood should not be named captain of the ODI squad based on his performances for Derbyshire.

In a big surprise for the fans, Masood's name surfaced as potential ODI captain earlier this week. He was named vice-captain for the ODI series against New Zealand with regular deputy skipper Shadab Khan sidelined due to an injury. After a disappointing 1-2 loss against Kiwis at home, questions over Babar Azam's future as captain have started gaining momentum.

But Afridi cleared the air and said that Masood was not even under consideration to play the first two ODIs against New Zealand by him and Babar. He also added that chairman Najam Sethi should have taken the chief selector and captain under confidence before announcing his decision to name Masood as the vice-captain for the New Zealand series.

"Shan Masood should not have been named as vice-captain of the ODI squad. Chairman of the PCB should have taken the captain or chief selector under confidence; he was neither under consideration by me nor by Babar Azam for the first two ODIs against New Zealand. Shan Masood cannot be named as captain or vice-captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team based on his performances for Derbyshire," Afridi said in interview with local news media.

I am not in favour of having three different captains: Shahid Afridi

Pakistan's home series defeat against New Zealand in ODIs and England in Tests raised a lot of questions over possible captaincy changes in Pakistan cricket. Rumours of PCB looking into three different captains for different formats have also surfaced but Shahid said that he is not in favour of the idea.

"I believe that Babar Azam has a lot of room for improvement in his captaincy. I am not in favour of having three different captains for the different game formats, and instead suggest naming one captain for ODI and Test cricket and a separate captain for T20s," Afridi mentioned.