Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey

Noise is growing louder that Pakistani Test captain Azhar Ali’s role as the leader of the team is in danger. According to the PTI report, Azhar has lost favor with an influential member of the cricket committee which has resulted in this development. The right-handed top order batsman was appointed as the captain of the Test format and within 12 months of the job, the team lost two-nil in Australia and one-nil in England.

The final decision hasn’t been taken yet, but the current Test captain has struggled for the past two years in his 81 Test matches. Commentator Wasim Akram, who is also the member of the PCB cricket committee, previously said on Sky Sports, “It will hurt the Pakistan team and the cricket lovers in Pakistan. Winning and losing is part of cricket, but I think our captain missed a trick quite a few times in this game, as far as his leadership is concerned.”

Azhar was appointed as ODI captain after Misbah-ul-haq and Shahid Afridi’s retirement after the 2015 World Cup. After having poor outings in overseas matches he was axed from captaincy in 2017. Now, as per the reports, Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam are two potential names for the Test captaincy.

As per ESPNcricinfo, PCB has said the media that Azhar’s annual appraisal is being carried out, and CEO Wasim Khan had already met him. “The final decision, however, hasn’t been made yet as constitutionally, the prerogative to name or dismiss a captain rests with the PCB chairman – who is due to meet Azhar in the next 10 days”, says the report.

Written by Anjali Jha. Follow Anjali on Twitter today.