There are two people who are currently in the Pakistan team. In white-ball cricket Babar Azam is leading the charge while in red-ball Shan Masood is captaining the green shirts.
Recently, in his interview with Cricwick, Aamer was asked about the captaincy style of both of the skippers as the all-rounder has played under both.
In response, Aamer termed Babar as a “defensive captain”. Jamal made his T20i debut under Azam’s captaincy in 2022 in a home-series against England. He described Babar as a skipper who prioritised securing the team’s position by opting a secure and safe strategy.
“Bobby Bhai [Babar Azam] has a more defensive mindset. He focuses on securing the team’s position first, ensuring that we are in a strong place before taking risks”
However, it’s a true and honest analysis to some extent. At some point, Azam has shown defensive strategy while opting for bold and result orientated. Also, the skipper had a below-par outing in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup 2024.
Nevertheless, Azam has played one T20 World Cup final (2022) and semi-final (2021) although failed to cross the winning line in both of the tournaments. Jamal has also played under Babar in Peshawar Zalmi during the ninth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
The 28-year-old said on the other hand, Shan Masood is an aggressive captain. Jamal made his Test debut under Shan during the Test series against Australia. It is no surprise since Shan is known for his proactive stance and he encourages his troops to respond robustly.
“Shani Bhai [Shan Masood] is more aggressive. He believes in responding to challenges with equal force. If someone throws a punch, he believes we should throw one too,” Jamal remarked.
Shan has only captained Pakistan in one series thus far, despite the result not favouring Pakistan but the team showed great grit and determination even dragging Australia to 11-4 at one occasion.
Shan, however, has the plethora of experience in captaining different sides as he captained Multan Sultans in the PSL, Southern Punjab in National T20 Cup, Derbyshire in T20 Blast, and currently he’s captaining Yorkshire in the County Championship.
It is yet to be seen how the next series (against Bangladesh) will unfold for Shan and his side. The two-match Test series will be kickstarted from 21 August at Rawalpindi.
However, Jamal maintained that despite having different nature, both the captains are supportive and back their players regardless of the outcome.
“As captains, both of them understand you and ask about your needs and what you require,” Jamal concluded, highlighting the communicative and supportive leadership style of both Babar Azam and Shan Masood.
Jamal also mentioned the tough opponent to bowl in the Pakistan squad, surprisingly he singled out Azam Khan rather than naming Babar or Mohammad Rizwan.
“In Pakistan, I don’t want to bowl to Azam (Khan). The reason is that in white-ball cricket, you have only two or three options. You can either bowl a yorker, a slower ball, or a bouncer,” Aamer said.
“Whenever I bowled to Azam, he hit me very badly. He hits the ball very hard. When I bowled to him in the last match, I told him not to hit straight because I didn’t even have time to blink,” he concluded.
