By the time of the return tour the following year, Abdul Kardar, captain of Pakistan since their Test election, had retired from Test cricket. Fazal, the nation's leading bowler, succeeded him in the role. In his first Test as captain he won the toss and decided to field, opening the bowling he took the wicket of Conrad Hunte in the first over for the second successive Test. Fazal finished the innings with figures of 4/32 which also included dismissing Gary Sobers for a duck. Fazal took three further wickets in the second innings including both Hunte and Sobers, the latter's wicket was Fazal's 100th in Test cricket, the first Pakistani to reach the landmark. Pakistan completed a ten wicket victory to give their new captain a winning start. Pakistan also won the next Test at Dhaka and therefore completed a series win in the three match rubber. In a low scoring match Fazal played an instrumental role, taking ten wickets in a match for the fourth time in Tests. Put in to bat, Pakistan recovered from 22/5 to make 145. West Indies fared worse, being dismissed for 76 following a collapse of six wickets for 11 runs. Fazal bowled throughout the innings, taking 6/34. West Indies, set 214 in their fourth innings, fell 41 runs short. Fazal taking six of the first seven wickets, the other dismissal that of Sobers by Mahmood Hussain involved Fazal as the catcher. Mahmood finished off the tail to claim four wickets while Fazal ended with figures of 6/66 and a match analysis of 12/100. The latter were the best figures by a bowler whilst captain until 1993, when bettered by Waqar Younis. The third Test, a dead rubber, was won by the West Indies. Fazal dismissed both openers but these were his only wickets in 40 overs. He was the leading wicket-taker in the series with 21 at 15.85.