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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Monday it has appointed left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi as the new skipper of the national men’s squad for the One Day International (ODI) format, weeks before the upcoming South Africa series. 

Rizwan’s status as ODI captain was thrown into doubt by the PCB after it released a statement last week that it was “yet to finalize a captain” for the South Africa ODI series, scheduled to take place from Nov. 4-8. The PCB said white-ball head coach Mike Hesson had called for a meeting of the selection committee to make a final decision on the ODI captaincy.

Rizwan was appointed by the PCB as ODI skipper last year and led the side to ODI series victories in Australia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. However, this year he was unable to impress the selectors. Pakistan under Rizwan’s captaincy lost a home tri-series final to New Zealand and suffered an early exit from the Champions Trophy tournament before suffering an away series defeat against the West Indies.

“Shaheen Shah Afridi has been named captain of the Pakistan men’s ODI team,” the board said in a statement. “The left-arm fast bowler will lead Pakistan in the three-match ODI series against South Africa, scheduled to take place at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad from 4 to 8 November.”

The PCB said that the decision was made following a meeting held in Islamabad, which was attended by white-ball head coach Mike Hesson, Director High Performance Aqib Javed and members of the national selection committee.

Afridi has played 66 ODIs and 92 T20Is for Pakistan, taking a combined 249 wickets in both formats. In 32 Tests, excluding the ongoing second Test against South Africa at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, the lanky pacer has claimed 120 wickets.

Afridi was previously appointed captain of Pakistan’s T20 squad in an away series against New Zealand in 2024. However, the pacer was sacked from the role and replaced with former captain Babar Azam after only one series. 

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan punished poor catching from South Africa to accumulate 259-5 on the opening day of the second and final Test in Rawalpindi on Monday.

Had the tourists not dropped five catches on a turning pitch they would have been in a better position after Pakistan won the toss and batted.

Skipper Shan Masood, dropped on 71 off a luckless Keshav Maharaj, top-scored with 87 while Abdullah Shafique — dropped four times — made 57.

Saud Shakeel and Salman Agha will resume on Tuesday unbeaten on 42 and 10 respectively, with the home team seeking a 2-0 series win against the world Test champions.

South African pacer Kagiso Rabada trapped Mohammad Rizwan with the fifth delivery with the second new ball for 19 to give some respite to his team.

Maharaj, who missed the first Test in Lahore through injury, took 2-63 and fellow spinner Simon Harmer 2-75.

With the bulk of bowling done by Maharaj and Harmer, spinner Senuran Muthusamy — who took 11 wickets in the first Test — was surprisingly used for just four overs.

The final session also saw Masood fall to an uppish sweep off Maharaj, caught by Marco Jansen, after hitting two four and three sixes in his innings.

Earlier, Shafique’s chancy knock finally ended when he edged Harmer to wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne after adding an invaluable 111 runs for the second wicket with skipper Masood.

The struggling Babar Azam, again cheered by a home crowd willing him to return to form, was dismissed for just 16 when Tony de Zorzi took a low catch at silly point for Maharaj’s first wicket.

Azam has gone 29 Test innings without a century.

Maharaj himself dropped Shafique on 15 off his own bowling and then saw Aiden Markram drop the same batter on 41 and 53.
Shafique also survived on nine when a Jansen delivery rolled onto the stumps but did not dislodge the bails.

In the morning session South Africa’s only breakthrough came from Harmer, who bowled Imam-ul-Haq for 17 with a sharp turner that beat the bat and hit off-stump.

Rabada was also unlucky when Tristan Stubbs dropped Shafique in the slips off the fourth ball of the match when he was on nought.

Having won the first Test in Lahore by 93 runs, Pakistan included a third spinner in Asif Afridi, dropping fast bowler Hasan Ali.

At 38 years and 299 days, Asif became the second oldest Pakistani Test debutant, behind Miran Bakhsh, who made his debut at 47 years and 284 days against India in 1955.