Claim: Former cricketer and Pakistan team head coach Saqlain Mushtaq endorsed Shadab Khan as a strong candidate for the national team captaincy, citing his performance and leadership in the ongoing Champions One-Day Cup.
Fact: The statement was not reported by any credible news outlets and appears to be falsely attributed to Mushtaq. Geo News’ sports journalist Faizan Lakhani also confirmed to Soch Fact Check that Saqlain Mushtaq denied saying anything of the sort about Khan.
On 16 September 2024, X user @Rnawaz31888 shared images of the head coach and Shadab Khan with the caption (archive): “Saqlain Mushtaq – The way Shadab Khan is performing & doing captaincy in this Champions Cup. I think Shadab Khan could be a better option for captain of Pakistan for Champions Trophy 2025.”
The caption implies that Saqlain Mushtaq endorsed Shadab Khan for captaincy. It has since been widely shared across social media platforms including here and here on Facebook.
YouTube account ‘Events and Happening Sports’ posted a video referring to the statement and criticised Mushtaq for recommending his son-in-law for captaincy. Another YouTube account ‘Sports Door’ also posted a video which attributed the statement to Mushtaq.
Captaincy issues
In November 2023, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appointed Shan Masood as the test captain of the Pakistan men’s cricket team, while Shaheen Shah Afridi was named T20I captain. The two were appointed after Babar Azam stepped down from all three formats of the game. However, in March 2024, the board re-appointed Azam as the white-ball captain of the men’s national cricket team.
Pakistan’s recent 2-0 Test series defeat to Bangladesh under Shan’s captaincy marks the latest setback in a disastrous 12-month run. During this period, the team also suffered losses to Afghanistan and the United States in the 50-over and T20 World Cup tournaments, respectively, with Babar as the white-ball captain.
According to a recent report by Dawn, both captains are facing heavy criticism, and there is a strong possibility that they will be sacked before the team’s next international assignment.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a keyword search to verify if Mushtaq made such a statement but found no reports from credible news outlets. The claim is being circulated with a screenshot of Mushtaq from a recent press conference that was held after he joined the Panthers (team) as a mentor for the Champions One-Day Cup. However, during the press conference, he did not advocate for the all-rounder as the national team captain.
The press release on the PCB’s official website does not mention the head coach discussing captaincy at all.
Additionally, sports journalist and deputy editor – sports at Geo News, Faizan Lakhani quoted (archive) the viral X post, asking, “Do you have any video/audio of Saqi bhai saying this? Where did you hear him say all this? I just spoke to him, and he’s denied making such a statement.”
Lakhani also told Soch Fact Check that he found the statement in the X post absurd and believed neither Saqlain Mushtaq nor any other player would say such a thing. He added that when he sent the head coach a screenshot of the post for verification, Mushtaq denied making such a statement. Soch Fact Check verified Lakhani’s statement with a thorough review of its evidence.
Therefore, the claim that Saqlain Mushtaq endorsed Shadab Khan for the national men’s team captaincy is rated as false.
Virality:
The claim was shared here, here, here, here, and here on X. Archived here, here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook, it was shared here, here, here, here, and here.
The claim was also shared on Instagram here.
On Threads, it was shared here.
Conclusion: Viral posts claiming that head coach Saqlain Mushtaq endorsed Shadab Khan for the men’s national team captaincy are false. The statement was not reported by any credible news outlets.Geo News’ sports journalist Faizan Lakhani also confirmed to Soch Fact Check that Mushtaq denied making any such remarks about the all-rounder.
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Background image in cover photo: PCB Official
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