Pakistan's Shaheen Shah Afridi celebrates the wicket of Sri Lanka's Pathum Nissanka during the Asia Cup cricket match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)Pakistan on Monday appointed Shaheen Shah Afridi as its new white ball captain, taking over from Mohammad Rizwan. “The decision to replace Rizwan and appoint Afridi as captain was made following a meeting attended by white-ball head coach Mike Hesson, Director of High Performance Aqib Javed and members of the national selection committee in Islamabad,” an ICC statement revealed.
Afridi will take charge of the Men in Green when they take on South Africa in the upcoming ODI series, starting from November 4. Afridi made his debut in 2018 and has taken part in 66 matches for Pakistan in the 50-over format where he has scalped 131 wickets at an average of 24.28.
The last time that Shaheen had captained Pakistan was in 2024 where he lead them against New Zealand in a 5-match T20I series that ended at 2-2. He was later replaced by Babar Azam in the same year, the same man he took the T20I captaincy from in the first place.
Pakistan have announced the appointment of a new ODI captain 👀
Details 👇
— ICC (@ICC) October 20, 2025
Shaheen’s predecessor Rizwan was appointed Pakistan’s white-ball captain on 27 October of last year and lead in 20 ODIs, winning 9 and losing 11. He failed to take Pakistan to the Champions Trophy 2025 semifinal and also lost a 3-match series to West Indies. He, however, lead Pakistan to ODI series win against Australia and South Africa.
Afridi is currently with the Pakistan team, taking on South Africa in Rawalpindi for the second Test that started on Monday. In the first Test, Afridi took 4 wickets in the second innings as Pakistan defeated the World Test Championship holders and climbed up to the second position in the current WTC table.
Before that, Afridi represented Pakistan in the Asia Cup where he took 10 wickets, finishing just behind India’s Kuldeep Yadav. Pakistan under Salman Agha ultimately ended as runners-up in the tournament losing to India 3 times, including the final.
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