'Never imagined life without him' - Ramiz Raja's hilarious take on captain Babar Azam

Babar Azam’s meteoric rise in the cricketing world is evident by his staggering numbers in the past few years. The elegant batter is a run-scoring machine and churns out big runs for fun. Ever since being appointed the captain of the side, he has taken his game to another level, and Pakistan Cricket Board’s chairman Ramiz Raja can’t imagine life without him at the helm.

The former Pakistani cricketer has never shied away from admitting his admiration for the current all-format captain, who has wooed the crowd back to stadiums and has become a fan favourite. In the latest video of a press conference, the PCB chairman can be seen making a hilarious remark about Babar when asked about backup captaincy candidates.

The incident came to be when a reporter put forward the question to Raja, asking whether Shaheen Afridi, Shadab Khan and Mohammad Rizwan are potential backup captaincy candidates alongside Babar Azam. The 59-year-old was at his hilarious best as he stated that he never imagined anyone else leading the side apart from the right-hand batter.

“I haven’t thought about it because I never imagined a life without Babar Azam,” the PCB chairman said while responding to the question.

Notably, Afridi and Rizwan have captained Lahore Qalandars and Multan Sultans respectively, in Pakistan’s T20 league, PSL.

Babar Azam’s rise to the top continues

The 27-year-old has been in tremendous form lately, especially in white-ball cricket, as he is ranked the No. 1 batter in both ODIs and T20Is in the latest ICC rankings. The stylish batter is showing no signs of slowing down even after the added responsibility of leading the national side and has done a commendable job since taking up the role. He led Pakistan to successive ODI series victories against Australia and West Indies.

He was rewarded by PCB on Thursday, 30th June, when he was placed in the highest category for both white-ball and red-ball cricket in the list of Pakistan’s centrally contracted players from July 2022 to June 2023. The current skipper is joined by Azhar Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Afridi, Shadab Khan, and Fakhar Zaman in the category.