Babar Azam appointed ODI captain as Pakistan declare central contracts

Babar Azam, ever since being appointed as the T20 skipper replacing Sarfraz Ahmed, was rumoured to be taking over the responsibility of the ODI side as well. But with no ODI cricket in sight, the PCB kept their card close to their chest, and now, as the sporting world has come to a stand-still with the coronavirus pandemic, they declared Azam as their new two-format white-ball skipper.

"I want to congratulate Azhar Ali and Babar Azam for getting captaincy extensions. This is absolutely the right decision as they also require certainty and clarity on their future roles. I am sure they will now start looking to the future and start planning so that they can build sides that can perform at the expected levels,” chief selector and head coach Misbah-ul-Haq said. 

Meanwhile, PCB have also announced that the pace trio of Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz, and Mohammad Amir have lost their central contracts and Sarfaraz Ahmed has been demoted from category A to B. Young pacer Shaheen Afridi along with Test skipper Azhar Ali have been promoted from category B to A, where the duo joined Babar Azam in the top category for PKR 1.1 million (USD 6200 approx.). 

Meanwhile, Yasir Shah, who had a poor run of form in Test cricket lately, has also been demoted from A to B and Imam-ul-Haq was demoted from B to C. Yasir, Sarfraz joined Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Abbas and Shadab Khan in the B category apart from Abid Ali, Mohammad Rizwan and Shan Masood who were promoted from C to B.

PCB annual contracts list

Category A (PKR 1.1m): Babar Azam, Azhar Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi

Category B (PKR 750,000): Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Abbas, Shadab Khan, Abid Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shan Masood, Yasir Shah

Category C (PKR 550,000): Fakhar Zaman, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Naseem Shah, Iftikhar Ahmed, Usman Shinwari

Emerging: Haider Ali, Harris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain