Pakistan star batter Babar Azam has left the position as the side’s white-ball captain. With this, he has ended a tenure which saw both highs and lows for him and the team.

Babar announced this decision to the world with a late-night tweet on Tuesday where he stated that his choice to resign from captaincy was driven by a desire to prioritize his performance as a player and find balance in his personal life.

“I have decided to resign as captain of the Pakistan men’s cricket team, effective as of my notification to the PCB and Team Management last month,” Babar stated on X.

“I want to prioritize my performance, enjoy my batting, and spend quality time with my family, which brings me joy,” Babar added.

Babar’s decision to step down from captaincy comes just 6 months after he was retained as Pakistan’s captain in both the ODI and T20I formats. His initial resignation from all-format captaincy came after Pakistan’s disappointing performance in the 2023 ODI World Cup last November.

In the aftermath of the World Cup, it was Shaheen Afridi who took over the captaincy in the T20I format. However, after a crushing 4-1 defeat to New Zealand, Babar was reinstated as the skipper.

Despite his reappointment, Babar failed to make many improvements as Pakistan got knocked out of the T20 World Cup in the group stages itself and suffered a shocking loss against the United States. They also lost against arch-rivals India which ended up sealing their fate in the ICC tournament.

After Babar’s resignation from captaincy many fans took to social media and criticized the former Pakistan skipper for not being able to achive anything significant during his time as captain.