Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting backed Pakistan cricket board for reappointing Babar Azam as their captain for the T20 World Cup 2024. He said that Pakistan looked like a more settled team under Babar's leadership in the ongoing marquee event.
PCB appointed Shaheen Shah Afridi as the new T20I captain after Babar-led Pakistan were failed to perform in the Asia Cup and ODI World Cup in 2023. Under Shaheen's captaincy, Pakistan just played one biletral series against New Zealand where BlackCaps defeated them by 4-1.
“Shaheen didn't set the world on fire as a leader either, so I think going back into a World Cup it just looks like a more settled team when you've got someone like Babar as captain rather than Afridi” Ponting told ICC.
“And when you are captain, you can't do that. You've got to actually compartmentalise what you're doing, look after your own game, look after all the guys around you,” added ponting.
"So some guys can manage that better than others. I reckon Babar, when he first started, I had that feeling that he... because if you look at his record, his numbers went down on the back of it. So I think he might have learned a bit from that" ponting further said
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Ponting, one of the greatest captains in cricket history, pointed out that captaincy is not everyone's cup of tea, and some of the best players have not been the best leaders for their side.
"Captaincy just sits well with some people and it doesn't sit well with others. We've seen it through the years that some of the best players that have ever played the game have not necessarily made the best captains, and the thing that makes some of the very best players so good is how focused they are on what they need to do to get better and to be the best and find a way every day to get better," concluded Ponting.
Ponting led Australia won the two editions of the of the World Cup in 2003 and 2007. He smashed 71 international centuries he is among the third in the tally of most international centuries.
Pakistan will enter in the tournament as last year's finalists and they will face co-host United States in their opener clash on June 6.
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