'It disturbs the harmony of a team' - Salman Butt on constant Babar Azam vs Mohammad Rizwan captaincy debate

Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has asked the fans, followers, and cricket experts not to constantly compare Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan when it comes to captaincy matters. Apparently, the debate gained attention, when the wicketkeeper-batter helped Multan Sultans win its first Pakistan Super League (PSL) title on June 24. In a miracle of sorts after languishing at the bottom of the points table in the first half of the tournament in Karachi, Sultans led by Rizwan turned a corner by winning all the games in Abu Dhabi to clinch the title.

Interestingly, Rizwan is not even the vice-captain of the Pakistan team during their white-ball tour to England starting on July 08. Shadab Khan is the designated vice-captain and Rizwan is the first-choice wicketkeeper-batter due to his stellar run of form in the past few months. On the other hand, Azam the team’s all-format skipper is doing pretty well at the moment as he has won an away series in South Africa too.

While speaking on his YouTube channel, the former opening batter spoke about both the players doing well in the recent months for the team. “It’s a good thing that your captain and vice-captain both are performing well. If you talk about captaincy one has a slight edge over the other. His body language is more like a captain’s but I won’t take his name now.”

It’s not healthy to talk about captaincy repeatedly: Salman Butt

Butt stressed the point on how the team’s morale too gets affected by constantly comparing the two players. Azam and Rizwan are both key members of the squad and both the players are vital to the team doing well.

“But it’s not healthy to talk about captaincy repeatedly when your team is on a tour. If one match’s result doesn’t go your way then some players or experts start talking about captaincy is not good for the team. The T20 World Cup is just around the corner. These two are certain to play, they are Pakistan’s main players. These two players shouldn’t have the thinking that ‘I want to become the captain’ because it disturbs the harmony of a team. So I will urge all the experts to keep this in mind,” Butt added.