On November 15, 2023: PCB appointed two New Captains for Test and T20 format. Shan Masood was named captain of the test team while Shaheen Shah Afridi captain for T20s.
The Decision was made by PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf after the Post world cup meeting with former captain Babar Azam.
34 Years old Shan Masood has played 30 Test matches, scoring 1597 runs including 4 hundreds and 7 half centuries. Shan has been appointed Test Captain till the end of test championship 2023-2025. His first task as a captain would be the coming test series with Australia at their home grounds starting from 14th December 2023.
Critics;
Unlike other cricket teams PCB don’t go for long term plans, rather they often change their captain or players right after some major ICC event if the team does not perform as expected. So Ifs and buts are part and parcel of PCB. In this decision of captain change here are few of them;
1- As Shan Masood is comparatively young and there are some senior players in the team like Babar Azam, Muhammad Rizwan and Shaheen Afridi so Shan Masood Leadership within the team will be tested.
2- Nobody wants to lose but what if Shan Masood loses the first couple of series? Will PCB allow him to go further as a captain or will there be a new captain?
3- Good thing for Shaheen is he already has experience of captaining a T20i team as under his leadership Lahore Qalandars has won PSL Trophy so he would feel comfortable captaining Pakistan T20i team.
4- Babar Azam recent performances were not up to the mark, maybe he was feeling added pressure of captaining the side. But as of now the captain has been changed so hopefully he would perform according to his class. But what if he still not perform with the bat, will selectors think of dropping him from the team.