Babar Azam named Pakistan's ODI and T20I captain as PCB announce new central contracts

Pakistan have named Babar Azam as their new ODI and T20I captain captain on Wednesday. Azam will take up the full-time responsibility of leading Pakistan in the shorter formats of the game when cricket resumes after the coronavirus pandemic. While Babar Azam will lead in limited-overs internationals, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that Azhar Ali will continue to lead the Test side. Misbah ul Haq congratulated both Babar Azam and Azhar Ali for getting captaincy extensions and hopes that the duo can build teams that can induce expected performance levels.

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Pakistan name Babar Azam as ODI captain

The PCB, in an official press release, announced their list of contracted players for the 2020-21 season. The statement said that the head coach and chief selector Misbah ul Haq focused on past performances while awarding the contracts while an emphasis was placed on the type of cricket to be played in the next 12 months amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Pakistan are scheduled to play nine Tests, six ODIs and 20 T20Is including the Asia Cup and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 over the next 12 months and will see Azhar Ali lead their Test side, while Babar Azam will lead the ODI and the T20 outfits. Pacers Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir were remarkably excluded from the central contracts list. 

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Tearaway fast bowler Naseem Shah was awarded a PCB central contract, while Abid Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Shan Masood and Shaheen Afridi also received promotions for the stellar showing over the past few months. Shaheen Afridi was awarded a Category A contract along with both captains Azhar Ali and Babar Azam after he finished as Pakistan's leading wicket-taker in Tests last season.  The contract list also included the newly-constituted Emerging players' list which had Haider Ali, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Hasnain.

Babar Azam will lead Pakistan against Ireland in the two T20s in July before making his ODI captaincy during their tour of South Africa in September.  

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Babar Azam's captaincy record

Babar Azam was appointed as Pakistan's T20I captain in October 2019 and lost his debut series away from home against Australia. Azam then led his side to the home T20I series against Bangladesh, which the hosts won 2-0 and the 25-year-old won the Player of the Series award. Azam has been in sublime form over the past 15 months and was named in the ICC ODI XI for the second time in his career in 2019.

The star batsman, who is often compared to Indian captain Virat Kohli, has captained his first-class team Central Punjab to victory in the 2019-20 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, beating Northern Punjab in the final. He continued as captain of the National T20 Cup, but his team could only muster a solitary win in five games to crash out of the tournament. 

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