"Chairman of the PCB should have taken the captain or chief selector under confidence" - Shahid Afridi on Shan Masood's appointment as vice-captain

Shahid Afridi has blasted Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi for not discussing with him or skipper Babar Azam before naming Shan Masood as vice-captain for the ODI series against New Zealand.

Masood was given the responsibility in place of Shadab Khan, who was ruled out of the series due to injury. However, the decision didn't go down well with Afridi, who was recently appointed as the chairman of the interim selection committee by the new PCB boss.

Afridi reckoned that Sethi should've discussed this with the selectors and the skipper before announcing his decision.

"Shan Masood should not have been named as vice-captain of the ODI squad," Afridi told reporters. "The 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 ODI's against New Zealand."

The former Pakistan skipper also added that Masood shouldn't have been a part of the ODI squad based on his County performances.

"Shan Masood cannot be named as captain or vice-captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team based on his performances for Derbyshire," Shahid Afridi added.

Masood was recalled to the ODI squad for the home series against the Kiwis after his superlative performances for Derbyshire. This was his first 50-over call-up after the five-match ODI series against Australia that took place in the UAE.

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"Babar Azam has a lot of room for improvement" - Shahid Afridi

While there is no doubt about Babar Azam's batting abilities, his leadership qualities have come under the scanner after Pakistan's poor performance at home. Although he has guided the Men in Green to the finals of the Asia Cup 2022 and ICC T20 World Cup 2022, he has struggled badly in the red-ball format.

Shahid Afridi reckoned that Babar still has room for improvement and backed the idea of having two skippers for three formats going forward.

"I believe that Babar Azam has a lot of room for improvement in his captaincy," he continued. "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."

The Pakistani players will next be seen in action during the upcoming edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), which gets underway on February 13.

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