Pakistan will have a new One-day International (ODI) captain when they take on South Africa in the upcoming three-match series.
According to a press release issued by the country’s cricket board on Saturday, “no decision has been made yet regarding the captaincy of the national team” for the series.
“.. head coach Mike Hesson has formally written to PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi, recommending that a joint meeting of the Selection Committee and the Advisory Committee be convened to finalise the captain for the series,” the statement read, adding that the decision will be made as soon as Monday.
The PCB correspondence all but confirms Mohammad Rizwan’s ouster as the Pakistan ODI captain after leading the side to series wins in Australia, Zimbabwe and South Africa last year.
The wicket-keeper-batter, however, had disastrous outings in the ICC Champions Trophy earlier this year — with Pakistan failing to make it past the group stages — before losing away series to New Zealand and the West Indies.
Rizwan’s last ODI captaincy stint was in August against the West Indies — where the Caribbean side sealed a much-needed first ODI series win against Pakistan since 1991, after being swept aside 3-0 and 5-0 in Test and T20 series, respectively, by Australia earlier in the summer.
He was also quietly removed from Pakistan’s T20I captaincy during this time, with Salman Ali Agha taking over.
As per ongoing speculations and unconfirmed reports circulating on different media and social media platforms, Pakistan pace spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi is highly likely to replace Rizwan as Pakistan kick off their preparations for the 2027 World Cup with the South Africa series from November 4.
The Mohsin-led PCB regime, since February 2024, has made wholesale changes. It first removed Shaheen as captain to bring back Babar Azam as white-ball skipper in the first half of 2024.
Shaheen was previously appointed the T20I captain after Babar stepped down from captaincy in all formats following Pakistan’s disastrous campaign at the ODI World Cup 2023 in India.
Later, Babar, owing to the team’s poor performance in the T20 World Cup, decided to step down, after which Mohammad Rizwan was given the reins of white-ball team.