PSL 11: Shaheen schools reporter over question on Pakistan white-ball captaincy

LAHORE: Left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi delivered a sharp response to a reporter regarding the white-ball captaincy of the national men’s cricket team here at the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 11 captains press conference on Wednesday.

During the press conference, attended by the captains of all eight participating teams of the marquee league, a reporter collectively asked a question to Islamabad United’s Shadab Khan, Peshawar Zalmi’s Babar Azam and Lahore Qalandars’ Shaheen, regarding Pakistan’s T20I captaincy.

In his question, the reporter, while referencing Shadab as the future T20I captain of the national men’s team, asked him whether he would put up performances to strengthen his case for the leadership role before shifting his attention to Babar.

He asked the right-handed batter as to how much significance the PSL 11 holds for him to prove his T20 credentials, before asking Shaheen whether he would utilise the upcoming tournament to affirm the notion that he should be the skipper for the shortest format instead of the ODIs.

The question did not sit well with the three cricketers, who appeared visibly unimpressed. Later, Shadab leaned towards the microphone to answer the question, but he was interrupted by Shaheen, who corrected the line of questioning and asserted that the discussion should remain focused on the upcoming tournament rather than national team leadership.

“First of all, we are playing PSL. […] Please, whatever question you have, it should be on PSL,” Shaheen responded bluntly. “When we play Pakistan cricket, please ask this question, and you will get good answers. Thank you,” he added.

For the unversed, Shaheen is currently the most successful captain in the history of PSL as he led Qalandars to three titles in 2022, 2023 and 2025, respectively. Shadab, on the other hand, has one PSL title victory as the captain, which came in the 2024 edition with the United.Staff Report