“It has been an honor for me to captain my country,” Bismah Maroof steps down as Pakistan Women’s team captain

But Maroof will continue to play with the team as a normal player. The PCB stated that the new skipper will be announced soon.

“It has been an honor for me to captain my country,” Bismah Maroof steps down as Pakistan Women’s team captain

Bismah Maroof

Bismah Maroof has stepped down as Pakistan captain after the team’s not-up-to-the-mark performance at the recently concluded Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa. Pakistan suffered a disappointing group-stage exit in February, losing three of their four matches. Her last assignment as a skipper was in a match against South Africa at the 2023 T20 World Cup.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Najam Sethi announced the decision on Twitter on Tuesday night. But Maroof will continue to play with the team as a normal player. She has led the Women in Green in 34 ODIs, where they won 16 of those matches, and 64 T20Is, winning 27 of them.

“It has been an honor for me to captain my country and I feel fortunate to have led an incredible and hardworking bunch of cricketers,” Maroof said in a statement released by PCB. “It has been one exciting ride, which has been full of highs and lows, but, at the end of the day, I will always be thankful to Almighty for providing me this opportunity.”

The 31-year-old then added that it was the right decision for her to step down from the leadership role for the new ICC Women’s Championship cycle plus the 2023 T20 World Cup. The PCB has also stated that the new skipper will be announced soon.

Related: “Get well soon champ”- Twitter reacts as Jasprit Bumrah ruled out of IPL 2023, likely to undergo back surgery

Bismah Maroof became Pakistan’s all-format captain in 2017

Bismah Maroof steps down as Pakistan Women's team captain
Bismah Maroof

Maroof was handed the leadership reigns in 2016. The PCB had chosen back then to split captaincy. Sana Mir continued to lead the ODI team but was removed from the role the following year in September, which saw Maroof becoming ODI as well as T20I captain for Pakistan. She has also the best win-loss ratio amongst all the regular players to captain the team.

In 2022 Maroof became the highest run-scorer for Pakistan women’s cricket team in both ODIs and T20Is. She has amassed 3110 runs in 124 ODIs with an average of 30.2, while in T20Is, she has scored 2658 runs off 132 matches at an average of 27.1.

In 2022, questions were asked about Pakistan’s leadership after her team won just one of their seven round-robin games in the ODI World Cup in New Zealand. But the PCB showed faith in her and did not remove her from the position.

In case you missed:

Shubman Gill vs KL Rahul: Who will open for India in Indore Test? What did Rohit Sharma say?

Ben Stokes was one of the costliest players in the 2022 IPL auction