KARACHI: Pakistan’s cricket chiefs on Tuesday took a decision that they should have taken at least a year ago. They gave the command of the national Twenty20 squad to wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed.
As Pakistan’s vice-captain in the T20 format, the 28-year-old Sarfraz was the logical choice after Shahid Afridi announced on Sunday that he was stepping down as captain in the aftermath of the World Twenty20 debacle.
Sarfraz’s ascent to captaincy should have happened much earlier as an over-the-hill Afridi failed to inspire Pakistan in the World Twenty20 where his team crashed out after the group stage of the tournament.
The combative stumper has plenty of leadership experience at other levels having captained Pakistan’s youth team at major international events like the U-19 World Cup and the Quetta Gladiators to the final of the inaugural Pakistan Super League in the UAE earlier this year.
Shaharyar Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, termed Sarfraz as the “natural choice” for Pakistan’s Twenty20 captaincy.
“I spoke to Sarfraz this morning and conveyed to him that he was our natural choice for this position. His appointment is open-ended. I wish him good luck in his new role,” Shahryar said in a statement.
Sarfraz promised that he will lead from the front.
“I am happy to have this opportunity and I am honoured that PCB has trusted my ability to lead the country,” Sarfraz was quoted as saying by Cricinfo.
“Indeed, this is a challenging job but at the same time, it’s the highest privilege in a cricketer’s life, so I am determined to do my best to justify my position captain. I didn’t make any future plan, but I will sit down with the PCB and will talk about it in due course.”
Sarfraz, who wants to do for Pakistan what MS Dhoni has done for India over the years, stressed that instead of indulging in useless talk he would let his performance do the talking.
“The best thing about me, I believe, is my ability to contribution for the team. I always try to play my role whatever it is - batting or wicket-keeping - regardless of the situation or the number I bat on. The more important thing about me is that I remain in my limit and don’t talk much. It’s my cricket that speaks, and this is what a captain should be doing - lead form the front,” he said.
Sarfraz, who has scored 291 runs at 29.10 from 21 T20I appearances, will have to wait for five months before his captaincy debut in Twenty20 Internationals. Pakistan’s next international assignment is a full tour of England this summer at the end of which they will play a one-off T20I against the hosts at Old Trafford on September 7.
He has a challenging job considering that Pakistan’s T20 squad is lagging far behind top teams like the recently-crowned World T20 champions West Indies, England and India.
Pakistan will need to rebuild their squad and much will depend on how Sarfraz wants to take it forward.
A big decision for him and a new team management, which is yet to be named, would be whether to persist with Afridi.
The seasoned all-rounder has made himself available for national T20 duty even though the general opinion is that he should have announced his retirement.
Afridi,36, had to bear the brunt of criticism in the wake of the World T20 disaster with both head coach Waqar Younis and team manager Intikhab Alam singling him out for his team’s poor performance.
In his strong-worded report, Waqar took a swipe at Afridi stressing that “Afridi was not performing with the bat, ball or as a captain but I was not listened to,” and that the senior player “didn’t attend few meetings, practice - and this is not how a captain leads from the front.”
Later, Intikhab labeled Afridi as an “absolutely clueless” captain in a five-page report that was hugely critical of Afridi’s on-field tactics and off-field leadership.
Intikhab also termed the use of Sarfraz in the batting order by Afridi in the World T20 as a “critical waste of talent and form”.
The former Pakistan Test captain referenced various statistics, including that of all the deliveries that Pakistan faced at the World T20, Sarfraz only played 17 of them despite having made scores of 41, 25, 58 and 38 in his four T20I innings leading into the tournament.