I’m focusing on my game, says Azhar

KARACHI: During the last few days the possible replacement of Azhar Ali as Pakistan’s Test captain has been the biggest talking point. However, Azhar said on Wednesday that no one had officially talked to him about any such thing.

“As far as my captaincy is concerned so I am hearing from the media only and I have not held a meeting with anyone about any such thing,” Azhar told a virtual news conference after his team Central Punjab were beaten by Sindh by six wickets in a fantastic run-chase at the National Stadium.

“I always try not to think about any such thing and focus on my game. Once we were on the Australia tour and such types of talks had started. When any official talk will be there then effort would be made to address that. When there is no official talk about this topic so it is very difficult for me to comment on it,” Azhar said.

About Central Punjab’s defeat at the hands of Sindh in the Quaid-e-Azam (first-class) game Azhar said: “Last season, too, we tried our best to get maximum points. In this game unfortunately when we had to score big in the first innings. The outfield was too slow and batsmen got out in frustration.

“We should have scored upto 300 but we were folded at below-par total,” he was quick to add.

“After 200 and plus runs we made in the first innings, we had taken six of Sindh’s early wickets before Fawad Alam played a superb knock for them and that put us behind,” Azhar said.

“When we went to the second innings, we were confident if we scored more runs we could win. But we came under pressure. We sent Kamran Akmal up the order to put pressure on Sindh. After we could not score more we thought to set a target for Sindh in 50 overs so that we could produce a win. We knew that if Sindh are able produce a partnership they can also win. Sindh batted so well and snatched the game from us,” Azhar said.