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Pakistan names Shoaib Mallik as T20 captain

The former Pakistan skipper, Shoaib Mallik will don the role of a captain again as he has been chosen to lead the Pakistan team in the Twenty 20 contest against Australia, which is scheduled to take place on February 5 at Melbourne. This decision comes at the wake of a match ban imposed upon Shahid Afridi, the regular T 20 captain, who was reprimanded for a ball-tampering incident that took place at the last of the ODIs at Perth.

Mallik becomes the third captain in this Australian tour after Afridi and Yousuf, the captain for the test team, who doesn’t figure in the Twenty 20 squad. Another ace Pakistan cricketer with rich experience, Younus Khan, had earlier announced his retirement from the T 20 format after the 2009 World Twenty 20 victory. Kamran Akmal had also been overlooked, after he didn’t find a place in the final ODI at Perth.

Mallik had earlier captained Pakistan in all of the three formats of the game, as he had captained the side for three tests and for 36 ODIs, after he had been appointed captain following the disastrous performance by Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup. Younus Khan then had taken over the captaincy from Mallik in 2009. Shoaib Mallik in the role of a skipper had tasted more success in the Twenty 20 games, as he had also led the side to the Twenty 20 world cup final in the year 2007. Mallik’s bowling and batting averages have been reasonably higher during his stint as the captain of Pakistan.

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