Media365
Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja has questioned the Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision to remove Shan Masood as the Test captain ahead of the upcoming tours of the West Indies and England.The PCB has brought back Babar Azam to lead the Test side, but Raja believes Shan was unfairly blamed for the team’s poor performances.Speaking on his YouTube channel, Raja said Shan was expected to deliver results despite not having a strong enough squad. “You give him an ordinary Test team and then expect him to produce good results,” Ramiz commented.He added that if he were in Shan’s position, he would have challenged the board’s decision. “If I had been in Shan’s place, I would have submitted a written protest with the board that when a captain is consistently given a group of ordinary players consistently then how can you expect positive results?” Raja said.He also defended Shan by questioning why the captain alone should be held responsible. “If the standard of the Test squad is not good, how is the captain only responsible for this,” he added.Shan Masood led Pakistan in 16 Tests since December 2023, but the team lost 12 of those matches.Senior selector Aqib Javed recently blamed Shan’s leadership for the poor results, a view Raja disagreed with, saying a captain can only perform as well as the players available to him.Pakistan have now reinstated Babar Azam as Test captain. The team will leave for the West Indies on July 13 for a two-Test series before travelling to England for three more Test matches in August and September.
