Lahore, Oct 19 (IANS): Wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed has been sacked as Pakistan captain in Test and T20I cricket. While Azhar Ali has been appointed as Test captain, Babar Azam will lead Pakistan in T20Is until next year's World T20.

Sarfaraz, who has been facing criticism following Pakistan's dismal performance in the ODI World Cup earlier this year, has also been dropped from the team for the upcoming tour of Australia, where the Men in Green will play three T20Is and kick-start their World Test Championship campaign with two Tests.

However, soon after the development, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) committed a major blunder by posting a video from their official Twitter account, where some of the Pakistani players were seen dancing. After realising the mistake, the board issued a statement and said that the video was pre-planned and had nothing to do with the latest development.

"The PCB apologies for this post and accepts the timing of it was wrong. This was a pre-planned post as part of the one-year to go #T20WorldCup promotional campaign. The timing of this post clashed with the captaincy announcement for which the PCB offers its regrets," PCB wrote.

Under Sarfaraz's captaincy, Pakistan won the Champions Trophy in 2017 and rose to the top of the T20I rankings. However, his axing was on the cards after the team's T20 series defeat at home against a severely-depleted Sri Lanka side.