The honeymoon is over for Sarfraz

DUBAI: Sarfraz Ahmed almost seemed to be on the verge of tears on Wednesday night.With his team crashing out of the Asia Cup after a series of disastrous outings and his own captaincy under fire, Pakistan’s captain accepted complete responsibility for the failure but stressed that it wasn’t time to press the panic button.

His team crumbled under pressure in the must-win Asia Cup Super Fours game against Bangladesh in Abu Dhabi. To make matters worse for Sarfraz, his own batting flopped and his captaincy decisions backfired.

It was quite clear on Wednesday that Sarfraz’s honeymoon is over. Pakistan captaincy is never a bed of roses but for Sarfraz the going had almost been like a fairy tale since the day he took over the team’s charge from Shahid Afridi. Pakistan rose to number one in Twenty20 Internationals and won the ICC Champions Trophy in spectacular fashion under his leadership. He was literally shooed in as Pakistan’s captain in all three formats.But the team’s abject surrender in the Asia Cup has changed everything.

For the first time in his captaincy tenure he is really feeling the heat. On Wednesday night, when fired with tough questions, Sarfraz almost lost his cool. “We are obviously not feeling good. As a team, we have not done well. Our performance has been very poor. As a player, I have done really badly too. I should have done better. We were poor in every facet of the game, but we need to back this core group,” he told reporters at the Zayed Cricket Stadium after his team’s 37-run loss against Bangladesh. “There is pressure for any captain when you don’t perform and the team loses. I’m fine if there are one or two changes, if the selectors feel domestic performers should be rewarded, but the core group has to be backed. There is no need to press the panic button yet. Yes, we’ve lost, but this isn’t the time for drastic steps,” he said.

“Our batting wasn’t good, and we dropped a lot of catches. Our bowling was also patchy, and that’s the reason we are out of the tournament,” said Sarfraz, who had a poor run with the bat himself, scoring 68 runs in four innings. “I know I didn’t perform well. I needed to do much better, which I couldn’t. I take responsibility for the team’s performance.”

Asked whether he fears any sweeping changes in the team considering that the World Cup is just eight months away, Sarfraz stressed that Pakistan should keep faith in his team.“I still believe we have a lot of talented players in the team. Look at Fakhar Zaman. Though he didn’t have a good tournament, we have to back him. Babar Azam too. Imam has, thankfully, done well, but there’s also Shadab and Hasan. We have to back them and take them along with us. We have to look at our bench too. We have a pool of players, and by the time the World Cup comes, we’ll have a good team.

“The World Cup is quite some time away, we have other engagements before that. Australia are coming, and then there’s New Zealand. So we have to review our performance and see where we are falling short.”

Sarfraz urged that his team should be given time. “There’s no need to press the panic button. Yes, we have made mistakes as a team, and as a captain, I know that I didn’t do well. But no need to panic, we need to back the players, look at the positions and see if there are people outside the team who can come in.”

Sarfraz captaincy is now in danger and this fact has been giving him sleepless nights.“There’s always pressure on the captain of the Pakistan team. When the team does badly, obviously the pressure increases. If I tell you that I haven’t slept properly for the last six days, you won’t believe me. But yes, I want to stress that we shouldn’t panic. There should be criticism for our performance, but give us a little time,” he said.