Lahore: Pakistan Cricket Board Monday appointed wicket-keeper and batter Muhammad Rizwan as the T20 team’s vice-captain. The board announced the development on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“@iMRizwanPak has been appointed vice-captain of Pakistan’s T20I team,” the PCB wrote in its post.

Rizwan will be replacing Shadab Khan for the coveted post in the team, taking the reigns as a deputy to captain Shaheen Shah Afridi in the team for cricket’s shortest format.

It should be noted that Rizwan was recently favoured by former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi for the post of the skipper instead of left-arm quick Shaheen for the T20 team, a comment that raised many eyebrows.

Speaking at an event in Australia, Afridi showered praises on the wicketkeeper-batter and preferred him over his son-in-law Shaheen for T20 captaincy.

The legendary all-rounder of his era said: “[I admire Rizwan’s] hardwork and focus level. His best quality, which I like most, is only focusing on his game and paying no heed to who doing what and what not. He is really a fighter!”

“I want to see him [Rizwan] as the T20 captain but mistakenly, Shaheen became the skipper,” Afridi said on a lighter note while looking towards the left-arm quick, who was sitting behind him at the event.