Batsman Babar Azam made a return to the captaincy of the men’s cricket team on Sunday after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that he would lead the Green Shirts in ODIs and T20s.

It said the decision was made following a “unanimous recommendation” from the PCB’s selection committee and its chairman Mohsin Naqvi.

The PCB also shared a video clip from a meeting between Babar and Naqvi.

Babar was first made the T20 captain in 2019, before taking charge of the Test and ODI teams in 2020.

Babar stepped down from the post in November last year, after Pakistan’s dismal show in the Asia Cup and the 50-over World Cup last year.

Shaheen Shah Afridi had replaced him as the T20 captain and Shan Masood had assumed the role as the team’s Test skipper.

Both, Dawn had understood, were kept in the dark by the national selection committee — recently “reorganised” by Naqvi — as it pondered over who to appoint as the next captain of the national team before agreeing upon Babar’s name on Friday.

Dawn had learnt on authority that the PCB had offered Babar the captaincy of all three formats, but the batter had his own set of demands before accepting it, given how the board has worked in the last few months.

Babar’s return would mean Shan and Shaheen’s respective Test and T20 international captaincy stints would stay limited to just one series each and the PCB’s ignorance towards the duo’s position as a stakeholder in the situation may cost it the Pakistan dressing room’s stability.

According to sources, many in PCB believe that the organisation has made a mistake by not keeping Shaheen in the loop over captaincy and by just informing the pacer about its decision to bring Babar back as skipper.