Ehsan Mani confirms that Sarfaraz Ahmed will continue as Pakistan captain till 2019 World Cup

[Junaid_ahmed]

PCB should have made this decision an year back. Anyway this late decision shown us the hypocrisy of some experienced great who never wanted to become a captain & all of sudden accept the captaincy in one night.

 

[MMHS]

a fair comparison would be to include the teams each captain had available too. How many legends did Imran, WAsim, Inzamam have?

Afridi and Misbah didn't have much to work with, and the talent available is even worse for Sarfaraz.

each captain is a reflection of their times

It's not about the Captain - Sarfaraz is befitting to this team. It's about the Kingdom, which includes Captain & his players.

 

[MoJoJoJo]

Message to everyone:
Just stop moaning and spreading such negativity before a mega event. Just pray that our team bring the trophy home.
I just noticed one thing that we'll never be happy. I am listening to this captaincy rubbish since i started watching cricket. When misbah was captain we just cursed that guy during his whole captaincy tenure. (Heck under him we became world no 1 in tests, became first asian team fo beat saf in saf and to rebuild the team after spot fixing saga was a huge ask for a guy who just made a comeback in a team). Then after misbah, azhar became captain and during his whole tenure we just wanted "sarfraz the saviour" to rescue us. When he became captain, we won an icc tournament with a young team when odds were against us. He helped pak t20 team to rise to no 1 position and then improved odi ranking from no 8 to 5. Heck after a long time i saw a pakistani team competing well overseas. But we still find a reason to complain.. then when we wanted malik to become captain and under him we just lost a t20 series after 3 years. With the same team sarf was winning. As obviously captaincy do matter. But we'll realise it late, and mark this post, even after 1,2 years, when there will be a new captain (i don't know who we'll overhype) , we wont be happy even with him.

 

[gazza619]

Ok guess we dont really have much options.

 

[ali2220]

a fair comparison would be to include the teams each captain had available too. How many legends did Imran, WAsim, Inzamam have?

Afridi and Misbah didn't have much to work with, and the talent available is even worse for Sarfaraz.

each captain is a reflection of their times

In initial days, as far as legends are concerned, Imran only had Miandad.
The talent available today is average, average but not hopeless. Problem is not the result which sarfraz is achieving, but the way he's skipping the team.Pak OD team is very inexperienced, the skipper keeps yelling and shouting which doesn't help the younger players.

 

[moghul]

Disappointment , Misbah in 2015 and now Sarfraz, we have not been lucky to have good captains in the WC lately.

 

[moghul]

Ok guess we dont really have much options.

Yeah, due to lack of planning . We should have not been in this situation where Sarfraz is our only option,

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Great decision by <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRealPCB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheRealPCB</a> to appoint Sarfaraz Ahmed captain for World Cup. Sarfaraz has proved himself as a leader and should get total support from everyone. This is an ideal opportunity for him to make a memorable contribution. Go well Saifi! &#55357;&#56397;&#55356;&#56821;&#55356;&#56816;</p>— Shahid Afridi (@SAfridiOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/SAfridiOfficial/status/1092786314993233920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[YousafTheBeast]

It’s almost as if the Asia Cup didn’t happen.

 

[PakPremi]

It’s almost as if the Asia Cup didn’t happen.

No 5/6 ranking team did not make the final - shock/horror.

 

[PakPremi]

Message to everyone:
Just stop moaning and spreading such negativity before a mega event. Just pray that our team bring the trophy home.
I just noticed one thing that we'll never be happy. I am listening to this captaincy rubbish since i started watching cricket. When misbah was captain we just cursed that guy during his whole captaincy tenure. (Heck under him we became world no 1 in tests, became first asian team fo beat saf in saf and to rebuild the team after spot fixing saga was a huge ask for a guy who just made a comeback in a team). Then after misbah, azhar became captain and during his whole tenure we just wanted "sarfraz the saviour" to rescue us. When he became captain, we won an icc tournament with a young team when odds were against us. He helped pak t20 team to rise to no 1 position and then improved odi ranking from no 8 to 5. Heck after a long time i saw a pakistani team competing well overseas. But we still find a reason to complain.. then when we wanted malik to become captain and under him we just lost a t20 series after 3 years. With the same team sarf was winning. As obviously captaincy do matter. But we'll realise it late, and mark this post, even after 1,2 years, when there will be a new captain (i don't know who we'll overhype) , we wont be happy even with him.

Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
Pak rose from 8 to 5 with hardly any world beaters in the team but yes the captain is bad.

 

[Dr_Bassim]

Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
Pak rose from 8 to 5 with hardly any world beaters in the team but yes the captain is bad.

So how long do we have to rest on the defunct ICC trophy performance to continue proving that Sarfraz is indeed a great captain?

Give me a ballpark figure.

It's been 2 now.

1 more year? 2? Perhaps 3 more?

 

[PakPremi]

So how long do we have to rest on the defunct ICC trophy performance to continue proving that Sarfraz is indeed a great captain?

Give me a ballpark figure.

It's been 2 now.

1 more year? 2? Perhaps 3 more?

Where did I mention the trophy, and why are you ignoring the obvious improvement under him from 8 to 5 in ODI ranking ?
We are talking about his suitability for world cup so I do not want debate the T20 and Test captaincy.

 

[Amirforpresident]

Where did I mention the trophy, and why are you ignoring the obvious improvement under him from 8 to 5 in ODI ranking ?
We are talking about his suitability for world cup so I do not want debate the T20 and Test captaincy.

Yes, but he didn't contribute with the bat and with our weak batting line up, can we play a specialist captain?

 

[Dr_Bassim]

Where did I mention the trophy, and why are you ignoring the obvious improvement under him from 8 to 5 in ODI ranking ?
We are talking about his suitability for world cup so I do not want debate the T20 and Test captaincy.

Because the results after the trophy are not a pretty sight.

But its okay, this World Cup should reveal much more, even to most ardent fans.

Going from 8 to 5 is mostly playing against Ireland, Zimbabwe and winning the CT.

 

[saeedhk]

No matter who the captain is, Pakistan’s batting will cause a first round exit. Also, biwling hasnt been good too. Pakistan looks the weakest team, highly unbalanced. Pakistan would need luck to make it to semis.

 

[saeedhk]

No other person available. He’s the only person, ofcourse he’s the captain.

 

[Flat_Track_Bully]

It was because of Sarfraz Pakistan managed to qualify from CT group. He is a ICC trophy winning captain have some respect.

 

[Pete Rose]

No matter who the captain is, Pakistan’s batting will cause a first round exit. Also, biwling hasnt been good too. Pakistan looks the weakest team, highly unbalanced. Pakistan would need luck to make it to semis.

what were your views before CT>

 

[Syed1]

RIP all the "analysts" on PP.


Sarf is still the best guy to lead the side at the moment.



Also blaming the captain is the easy way out, not the captain's fault if the bowlers let the opposition off the hook after being 80/5 or the batsmen score 317. All the captain can do is keep rotating the bowlers and giving each ample opportunity to pick a wicket, which Sarf did. What can he do when Shadab keeps bowling long-hop hit-me bowls or Hasan is more concerned about his hairstyle or celebration rather than where to bowl the ball.

 

[MRSN]

No 5/6 ranking team did not make the final - shock/horror.

lol we were knocked out by BDs and embarrassed by associate team. It was truly an embarrassing event for a team who considers UAE their strong hold. It was not captained by Malik or some other not so great captain by the great Sarfraz.

 

[MRSN]

It’s almost as if the Asia Cup didn’t happen.

world cup is gonna expose this overrate Sarfraz so badly. So many eyes watching his impatience lackluster mediocre captaincy and coward batting so closely.

 

[Flat_Track_Bully]

world cup is gonna expose this overrate Sarfraz so badly. So many eyes watching his impatience lackluster mediocre captaincy and coward batting so closely.

Still achieved more than Misbah ever did. Who was the last Pakistani captain to win a 50 over ICC tournament?

 

[aukhan]

World cup will be the end of his Odi and test captaincy thats the only positive im seeing. If he was removed before the world cup then the karachi press would have made a martyr out of him.

 

[malikali]

How excited Sarfraz was in presentation with mani suggests he hardly bothers about the huge responsibility or he knew he has no place in the team if not retained as captain. Lol

 

[Hasan123]

No surprise here and the usual suspects defending him.

We won't win the WC with this current squad regardless who is the skipper. But it would be nice to have a captain who makes the team on merit, can lead through performance instead of promoting tail enders ahead of himself.

If he doesn't get us to the semis and we are thrashed in games , he should be sacked after the World Cup.

 

[SensiblePakFan]

Message to everyone:
Just stop moaning and spreading such negativity before a mega event. Just pray that our team bring the trophy home.
I just noticed one thing that we'll never be happy. I am listening to this captaincy rubbish since i started watching cricket. When misbah was captain we just cursed that guy during his whole captaincy tenure. (Heck under him we became world no 1 in tests, became first asian team fo beat saf in saf and to rebuild the team after spot fixing saga was a huge ask for a guy who just made a comeback in a team). Then after misbah, azhar became captain and during his whole tenure we just wanted "sarfraz the saviour" to rescue us. When he became captain, we won an icc tournament with a young team when odds were against us. He helped pak t20 team to rise to no 1 position and then improved odi ranking from no 8 to 5. Heck after a long time i saw a pakistani team competing well overseas. But we still find a reason to complain.. then when we wanted malik to become captain and under him we just lost a t20 series after 3 years. With the same team sarf was winning. As obviously captaincy do matter. But we'll realise it late, and mark this post, even after 1,2 years, when there will be a new captain (i don't know who we'll overhype) , we wont be happy even with him.

Indeed, sadly our fans' mentality doesnt look to be changing anytime soon.

 

[BakuGM]

world cup is gonna expose this overrate Sarfraz so badly. So many eyes watching his impatience lackluster mediocre captaincy and coward batting so closely.

If it was upto you Kamran would be the captain and Umar Akmal his deputy whereas Adnan would the wicket keeper. Your bias is so obvious one does not have to to read your post and already know what you are going to say about Sarfaraz......

 

[Chokli]

1.Babar Azam
2.Imam Ul Haq
3.Shan Masood
4.Fakhar Zaman
5.Sarfraz Ahmed
6.Mohammad Hafeez
7.Imad Wasim
8.Shadab Khan
9.Hasan Ali
10.Mohammad Amir
11.Shaheen Afridi

 

[PakPremi]

If it was upto you Kamran would be the captain and Umar Akmal his deputy whereas Adnan would the wicket keeper. Your bias is so obvious one does not have to to read your post and already know what you are going to say about Sarfaraz......

There are few others waiting to jump on any man that is down, so called Pakistani Fans.

 

[PakPremi]

1.Babar Azam
2.Imam Ul Haq
3.Shan Masood
4.Fakhar Zaman
5.Sarfraz Ahmed
6.Mohammad Hafeez
7.Imad Wasim
8.Shadab Khan
9.Hasan Ali
10.Mohammad Amir
11.Shaheen Afridi

Very good team and batting order, only if Pak think tank could think like this.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Congratulations Sarfaraz on getting selected as Captain for the World Cup 2019..It is a great honour and a massive responsibility..You have what it takes to bring the Trophy home <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AllTheBest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AllTheBest</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SarfarazA_54?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SarfarazA_54</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRealPCB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheRealPCB</a></p>— Waqar Younis (@waqyounis99) <a href="https://twitter.com/waqyounis99/status/1093005167794896901?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

Watched the whole 31 minute press conference yesterday in urdu.

Its awful to see how much hate Sarfraz got (and Mani too got some hate) in recent times in this forum and elsewhere.

Just pick one of his lines from his press conference, make titles and without noticing the context post it so that people can again have a go at him.

Shameful by certain people going after someone1 who is already down even though he has apologized 3 or 4 times. I hope they dont face tough times in life.

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

Mani said he knows Sarfaraz for 13 years now and was there (as ICC chairman) when we won u-19 wc final against Indian in Sarfraz's leadership and wrote a letter to then PCB chairman Sheheryar khan just after that about how good he was.

 

[Savage]

Good decision.

 

[Major]

10 years ago i remember whenever Kamran dropped a catch, we would be screaming for a new keeper, there was only one name we fans knew at that time and it was Sarfraz. He was the only keeperr at that time with good batting stats and keeping skills.

Often when Kamran dropped catches and SOS would be sent to Sarfraz, and that long hair Sarfraz would come to keep wickets. But when it would be time to bat,the guy was an absolute joke,
He was a walking wicket, he had no idea how to bat. Infact, there was even time when Sarfraz would be forced to bat at 7

Sarfraz was a walking wicket, and if anyone told us at that time that in 10 years this guy would be captaining Pakistan to a world cup i would be laughing crazy.

But yet, this guy was persisted.He scored a 46 in the Asia Cup where we almost lost to Bangladesh, but even in that innings Sarfraz didnt look confident.
Then Moin Khan came, and this guy changed. He gained confidence, started playing his shots freely. Eventually his style of batting got him to play as opener and he would smash 60 runs agianst Australia as an Opener. Then the world cup comes and he smashes a 100 against Ireland and wins it for Pakistan.

Winning or losing a World Cup is separate thing. But to captain your team to a world cup is a great honor. Safraz AHmedd enjoyed that honor this year.

One could learn from Sarfraz. 10 years ago he was a walking wicket, tonight he came back to Pakistan after leading Pakistan in the world cup.

He was criticized, attacked personally on the face, but he took it, he quietly took it, and thats the baggage that comes when you captain Pakistan.

But over the years one thing is clear. Sarfraz had to work hard. He had to improve his batting to get a permanent spot and to get the leadership role at this World Cup.

 

[iniqbal223]

Give this guy a break for 6 months. He is super unfit, and need to have some grooming skills how to handle people/media/other players etc. If PCB still thinks , for next 4 years he is a good option, then invest in him. His captaincy is still good, his batting also good at some stages, keeping not bad. But if you hide yourself at 7 or below for last 2 years , this is bound to happen. Everything will fall apart.

He can still come back as good player and captain. But he is exposed badly, and need to improve himself a lot.

WC : CAPTAIN DID NOT PERFORM, as simple as that.. Team morale does not go high if your captain is not performing even better than the worst players in the team.

 

[farazaidi]

I'm also hoping the same W63, he should be persisted with but with more focus on his fitness and improvement in batting is a must. He is still batting well I feel, just scored beautiful 97 against England couple of months ago batting at no.4. His fitness is letting him down in both batting & keeping.

I really hope he comes back stronger

 

[AdamM97]

I'll flip out if Sarfraz remains our captain in 2020.

 

[Hasan123]

His fan club got what they wanted. He was captain till the WC. Now please can we move on ? I am done with this guy. He is a rubbish player and is on the decline. If he is still in the playing 11 and even worse still captain after this WC, Pakistan are not serious about going forward. Whilst we had a respectable WC campaign despite falling short , I fear the PCB won't make the changes in the team required.

 

[Sherlock]

I'm not his biggest fan but one thing is clear, and it's been mentioned in these chat shows that we read about, Sarfaraz has sacrificed his batting for the team. He dropped down when the side needed it the most.

He could've easily slotted in higher in the order but either he or the management didn't take the chance. He batted well against England in the series before the WC too.

 

[blackanhyellow]

I'm not his biggest fan but one thing is clear, and it's been mentioned in these chat shows that we read about, Sarfaraz has sacrificed his batting for the team. He dropped down when the side needed it the most.

He could've easily slotted in higher in the order but either he or the management didn't take the chance. He batted well against England in the series before the WC too.

I don't see that as sacrificing. I see that as not having confidence in himself to back yourself to put up match winning performances with the bat.

If Sarfraz batted at number 4 and scored, no one would say he is being selfish. But the kind of form he was in, I don't think that he even thought he could score.

Also, he kept promoting Wahab and hasan above him as he can not hit boundaries to save his life. That is not called sacrificing for the team, that is called inability to play according to the situation so he had to send others before him who could actually do the job.

True sacrifice is what imran khan did in the final, came out at number 3, absorbed all of the pressure and put up a match winning knock. That's what we need a leader who leads from the front, not someone who hides behind tailenders.

 

[Sherlock]

I don't see that as sacrificing. I see that as not having confidence in himself to back yourself to put up match winning performances with the bat.

If Sarfraz batted at number 4 and scored, no one would say he is being selfish. But the kind of form he was in, I don't think that he even thought he could score.

Also, he kept promoting Wahab and hasan above him as he can not hit boundaries to save his life. That is not called sacrificing for the team, that is called inability to play according to the situation so he had to send others before him who could actually do the job.

True sacrifice is what imran khan did in the final, came out at number 3, absorbed all of the pressure and put up a match winning knock. That's what we need a leader who leads from the front, not someone who hides behind tailenders.

It's not about not having confidence in himself, it's about who we picked in the middle order to up the run-rate. We dropped Asif for Malik/Hafeez and that in-turn meant we only had Imad as a designated hitter at the end.

Sarfraz isn't a hitter, he's an accumulator but he can be a very good batsmen at upping the run-rate in the middle overs. he showed that to a tee against England in the series before the WC.

It's a shame people can't see that and always negate the basics of what happened weeks before.