Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq will lead the team in the matches against Ireland on 28 and 30 May in Belfast. "Afridi has been retained as a player in the one-day squad but the captaincy has gone to Misbah," said Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt. Afridi criticised Pakistan's team management after the team's recent one-day series in the West Indies.
Pakistan took a 3-2 win in the five-game series after reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup, where they were beaten by eventual winners India. Butt did not elaborate on the reason for the decision to remove Afridi from the captaincy.
PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwar said that it is the "policy of the board to appoint a captain on a series to series basis". Afridi has been leading Pakistan's Twenty20 and one-day international sides since early 2010.
Pakistan squad to face Ireland: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Younis Khan, Taufiq Umar, Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Salman (wk), Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Tanvir Ahmed, Junaid Khan, Hammad Azam.