'Shaheen Afridi Galti Se Kaptaan Ban Gaya', Shahid Afridi Takes Dig At Son-In-Law, Says His Choice As T20I Captain Was Mohammad Rizwan

Shaheen Afridi replaced Babar Azam as the T20I captain of Pakistan but his father-in-law and former captain Shahid Afridi feels Mohammad Rizwan was a better choice for the role.

Shaheen and Shahid Afridi. (Image: ANI/X)

Pakistani speedster Shaheen Afridi was looking for a place to runaway at a LIVE event in Sydney ahead of the third Test between Pakistan and Australia which starts on January 3. In this event attended by some current Pakistani cricketers and former captain Shahid Afridi, who happens to be father-in-law of Shaheen, the pacer felt embarrassed after being told he did not deserve the T20I captaincy. It was his father-in-law Shahid who told that to the audience as Shaheen, Mohammad Rizwan and other cricketers looked from stage.

Shahid was speaking on Pakistan cricket and what it needs to do become the best team in the world. It was then when he started speaking of the change of guards in Pakistan men's cricket team and took a dig at his own son-in-law Shaheen. After the horrible show by Pakistan in the ICC Men's ODI World Cup 2023 in India, Babar Azam stepped down as captain and Shan Masood was named as the Test captain while Shaheen got the T20I captaincy. 

At that time, many fans and the experts of the game in Pakistan felt that it was wicketkeeper and batter Mohammad Rizwan who deserved the captaincy in T20Is. However, the Zaka Ashraf-led Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) overlooked Rizwan to give the leadership role to Shaheen. 

While praising Rizwan at the event, Shaheen said, "(I admire Rizwan’s) hardwork and focus level. His best quality, which I like most, is only focusing on his game and paying no heed to who doing what and what not. He is really a fighter," said Afridi in an event for his Shahid Afridi Foundation. The former captain then quickly added, "I wanted to see him (Rizwan) as the T20 captain, but Shaheen became the skipper by mistake." After this statement Shahid looked at Shaheen, who was totally embarrassed by this comment and hid his face with his hands. Rizwan, Haris Rauf and Sarfaraz Ahmed started laughing and so did the room full of audience.

Watch the video here:

Shahid Afridi praised Muhammad Rizwan and said that Rizwan should have been captain of T20 but Shaheen became it by mistake.#Rizwan #PakistanCricket pic.twitter.com/TSECe93ZPM

— Ahtasham Riaz __ (@AhtashamRiaz_) December 30, 2023

In 2023, Shaheen married Ansha, one of Shahid's daughters. The wedding was split into two events. In February, the couple got married and the wedding reception took place only after Asia Cup 2023 finished in September. The wedding was attended by all sueprstars of Pakistan Cricket as well as former Pakistan greats such as Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq among others.