Afridi set to be named Pak T20 squad's new skipper

Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has reportedly been finalised to be the new captain for their Twenty20 squad and an official announcement for the same would be made by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday.

The PCB would also reiterate on Tuesday its earlier decision of retaining incumbent Test and ODI captain Misbah-ul-Haq until the 2015 World Cup. The board would also finalise the Pakistan team for the next series against Australia on Tuesday.

Sources revealed that PCB chairman Shahryar Khan, after completing consultations with the think-tank, got a consensus over Afridi's name as the next T20 captain in place of Mohammad Hafeez who resigned after national team's dismal show in the World T20 held earlier this year in Bangladesh, The Dawn reported.

Pakistan has three T20 matches lined-up in the upcoming series against Australia and New Zealand.

The sources also revealed that the PCB chairman also took all the Governing Board members into confidence over the decisions with the exception of Najam Sethi who is not in Pakistan.

For many past months, Afridi in his media talks has been expressing his wish to captain Pakistan once again. Sources said that as T20 captain, Afridi would be in a position to put some pressure on Haq who is already under pressure for not giving good results in the last series against Sri Lanka.

The sources also said that if Haq fails to regain his form against Australia and New Zealand, he might lose his captaincy to Afridi before the World Cup.

Afridi has a good captaincy record in ODI format, as he led national team to 18 wins in 34 matches he captained while losing 15, and one match ending in no result, the report added.