Under Rizwan, the sole achievement was the ODI series wins against Australia and South Africa. The right-handed batter’s performance with the bat witnessed an upside after his appointment as the captain in October 2024; however, the chief selector Aqib Javed and head coach Mike Hesson have opted to look past the 33-year-old.

The decision to appoint Shaheen as Rizwan’s successor was announced on the opening day of the second Test between Pakistan and South Africa in Rawalpindi. In its official statement, the PCB did not provide any official reason behind removing Rizwan.

As a matter of fact, there was no mention of Rizwan in the official press release as it spoke about just Shaheen Afridi and how the decision was taken after a meeting in Islamabad between the selection committee and Hesson.

“A meeting of the selection committee, also attended by Pakistan’s white-ball head coach Mike Hesson, decided that Shaheen will lead Pakistan’s ODI side against South Africa,” the official PCB release stated.

With Shaheen as the ODI captain, Pakistan now have three different captains for three formats, with Shan Masood and Salman Ali Agha at the helm of Test and T20I teams.

Rizwan’s removal from the post was all but confirmed last week when PCB declined to confirm as the ODI captain. The board in its statement last week said that the head coach Hesson asked chairman Mohsin Naqvi to convene a meeting with the selection and advisory committee to appoint a new captain.

Shaheen was earlier appointed as the white-ball captain for a short while but his stint ended on a sour note after he was removed from the role following Pakistan’s 1-4 series loss against New Zealand in the five-match T20I series.

Rizwan’s record

The right-handed batter led Pakistan in 20 ODIs, winning nine and suffering defeats in 11 games. He just had a winning percentage of 45. He was given the charge of both ODI and T20I captaincy on October 27 last year, ahead of Pakistan’s white-ball tours of Australia and Zimbabwe.

Rizwan was removed as the T20I captain with Salman Agha taking over. And now he has also been let go as the ODI skipper. The PCB might have confirmed the captaincy change but the selectors are yet to name the squad for the series against the Proteas; hence it needs to be seen whether the right-hander remains a part of the squad or not.

The 25-year-old Shaheen has played 66 ODIs for Pakistan, taking 131 wickets. On the other hand, Rizwan has played 94 ODIs, scoring 2713 runs at an average of 40.49.