No need to announce vice-captain for World Cup: Shahid Afridi

In a recent statement, former Pakistani cricketer, Shahid Afridi, expressed his views on the captaincy issue surrounding the Pakistani cricket team.

Afridi also mentioned that there is no need to announce a vice-captain for the World Cup. He stated that there is only one captain, and the team should focus on supporting and trusting him to lead them to success.

He said that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should have announced Babar as the captain till the 2023 World Cup earlier, to put an end to the issue of captaincy.

Afridi further stated that he can see a few areas where Babar still needs to work on to improve his captaincy. However, he believes that Babar should go to India with full preparation and confidence as the captain of the team.

"They [PCB] should have announced Babar Azam captain till the World Cup earlier, so the issue of captaincy would have ended there and then. I think Babar still needs to work on one or two things which I can see. After that, captain should go to India with full preparation and confidence," Afridi said.

Former all-rounder also mentioned that there is no need to announce a vice-captain for the World Cup. He stated that there is only one captain, and the team should focus on supporting and trusting him to lead them to success.

"I don’t think there is any need to announce a vice-captain [for World Cup]. There is only one captain, so only keep him in mind and let him do his thing," he added.

Babar is set to be retained as Pakistan captain for all three formats till the 2023 World Cup in India, after the Men in Green became the number one ranked ODI team in ICC rankings.