“I have decided to resign as captain of the Pakistan men’s cricket team to focus on personal growth,” stated the white-ball captain Babar Azam last week. Babar has quit as Pakistan captain for the second time in less than a year, citing a desire to lessen his workload and focus on his batting. Babar’s resignation comes almost six months to the day after his reappointment as captain of the country’s white-ball sides.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) accepted Babar’s resignation and said he still had much to offer to the team.

After stepping down as captain from all formats for the first time following Pakistan’s disappointing showing at the ODI World Cup in India late last year, Babar was appointed skipper of the T20I and ODI sides once more just four months later. Shaheen Afridi, the T20I captain in the interim, was sacked after just one T20I series.

The board’s confidence in Shaheen’s leadership abilities was shattered when in his first assignment, Pakistan lost the T20I series against New Zealand 4-1.

Shaheen was unhappy with the manner of his sacking and felt his concerns had not been addressed appropriately. The board clarified to Shaheen that they wanted to see a batsman lead the teams. It was a unanimous recommendation from the the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) selection committee to appoint Babar as white ball (ODI and T20I) captain.

Therefore, Babar was reappointed as the captain for T20Is and one-day internationals (ODIs) on March 31.

According to reports, Babar accepted the captaincy again with some certain preconditions. In discussions with the PCB, he sought guarantees that he would not be sacked again on the performance of the upcoming T20I World Cup in June. He also demanded a long term with more control in the matters of selection.

Babar was first appointed as Pakistan’s vice-captain in September 2019. The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) initial idea was to groom him under former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed but after an abrupt end to Sarfaraz’s captaincy career, he was asked to lead the team in the white-ball format.

He was first made the T20 captain in 2019, before being given charge of the Test and ODI teams in 2020. Babar stepped down from the post in November last year, after Pakistan’s dismal showing in the Asia Cup and the 50-over World Cup. Shaheen replaced him as the T20 captain and Shan Masood assumed the role as the Test skipper.

The downturn in Babar’s form has sparked wider discussions, especially after Pakistan’s disappointingly early exit from the 2024 T20 World Cup. Consecutive defeats to the USA and arch-rivals India led to Pakistan’s group-stage elimination.

Babar has struggled to maintain his form, particularly in Test cricket. His performance in the home Test series against Bangladesh was particularly disappointing, wherein he managed only 64 runs (0, 22, 11, and 31) across four innings.

He hasn’t scored a half-century in his last 16 Test innings. Adding to the pressure, Babar fell from the ICC top 10 rankings for batters for the first time in years.

Pakistan’s overall decline in Test cricket has also mirrored Babar’s struggles. The team recently dropped to eighth place in the ICC Test Team Ranking.

Babar’s position in the Pakistan cricket team has come under heavy scrutiny, with former skipper Zaheer Abbas calling for his removal from the squad due to a prolonged dip in form. “If he’s our main batsman and he’s out of form, he should be out of the team,” Zaheer said at an event in the UAE last week.

Under his leadership, Pakistan beat India for the first time in a World Cup encounter back in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.

In the 2022 T20 World Cup, he led the team to the final. This was Pakistan’s first final in a World Cup since 2009.

In T20Is, he led the team 71 times, winning on 42 occasions. His record includes two final losses, in the Asia Cup and the World Cup, and a semi-final loss, in the 2021 World Cup. Babar is tied with Eoin Morgan for most wins in T20Is.

In terms of percentage of wins, Babar is Pakistan’s 3rd most successful captain in T20 history.

Babar hit 8 ODI centuries while playing as Pakistan captain, which is most by any Pakistani skipper.

Babar has played 54 Tests, scored 3962 runs, averaging 54.63 with nine centuries and 26 fifties with a high score of 196 against Australia.

In One-day Internationals, Babar has amassed 5729 runs in 117 matches at an average of 56.72, including 19 hundreds and 32 half-centuries. His highest ODI score is 158 against England.

In the shortest format of the game, the former captain has played 123 T20Is and scored 4145 runs at an average of 41.03 and a strike rate of 129.08. He has scored three centuries and 36 fifties in T20Is.

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