Babar Azam's captaincy has 'room for improvement,' says Shahid Afridi

Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi has said Babar Azam's captaincy still has "room for improvement."

Afridi, who last played international cricket in 2018, served as Pakistan's cricket board's interim chief selector.

Under Babar's captaincy, Pakistan have struggled across formats in recent times, including home series defeats against Australia, England, and New Zealand.

In an interview, Afridi opined that instead of having different captains across formats, it would benefit Pakistan to have a captain for both One-Day International (ODI) and Test cricket while having separate one for the shortest format.

"I believe that Babar Azam has a lot of room for improvement in his captaincy. 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," Afridi was quoted as saying.

Ahead of the recently-concluded ODI series against New Zealand, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) shocked everyone by naming Shan Masood as the vice-captain of the national team. Afridi was critical of the move, stating that it wasn't something that was decided by either him or skipper Babar Azam.

"Shan Masood should not have been named as vice-captain of the ODI squad. 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," added Afridi.

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

New Zealand are scheduled to tour Pakistan again later this year in April for a white-ball series, including five T20Is and five ODIs.