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Is the Pakistan ODI team feeling more rejuvenated after the departure of Sarfaraz Ahmed?

srh

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Is Pakistan ODI team feel more rejuvenated after departure of Sarfraz? Should the departure be permanent?
 
My dude, if you have followed Pakistan cricket long enough you know the answer to this one
 
It should be permanent.

Also what do you guys think? If Malik performs as captain and Rizwan plays well, do you think PCB will seriously consider removing Sarfraz?
Or will he be put back right away in AUS series?
 
I want Sarfaraz in the squad but not as a captain or a middle order batsman, his best performances came at the top of the order, either play him at 1,2 or 3 and move babar down to 4.

And no, the team will go back to normal after the defeat in the decider.
 
Sarfraz is a liability to this team. Rizwan is currently on form better than him, but not the long term solution either (unless he really really shocks us). Sarfraz's captaincy is nothing to tell tales off of, his commrades are rather bothered by his behaviour. Malik is a good short term fix to see how to handle a team properly. Hopefully when sarfraz is back learns a thing or two...
 
I want Sarfaraz in the squad but not as a captain or a middle order batsman, his best performances came at the top of the order, either play him at 1,2 or 3 and move babar down to 4.

And no, the team will go back to normal after the defeat in the decider.

So you’re gonna move the top 3 who are settled and averaging 50 plus with strike rates over 80 to Accommodate sarfraz, a guy who’s been averaging 15-20 odd since becoming captain and been a liability.

He should bat at 11
 
I want Sarfaraz in the squad but not as a captain or a middle order batsman, his best performances came at the top of the order, either play him at 1,2 or 3 and move babar down to 4.

And no, the team will go back to normal after the defeat in the decider.

Bro Sarfraz demoted himself down to 8! Such is the regression, he knows he isn't good enough to even bat in the top 7.

If we were to go 4 years back then yes I would agree like we saw him opening during the last WC.
 
Apparently according to some tv reporters Sarfaraz has lost support of his team mates and they are fed up of his talkative ways out in the middle especially given that he has not been in good form himself.

The likes of Amir and Hassan Ali have already expressed their opinions to the PCB against Sarfaraz.
 
If Pakistan win 5th ODI then there will be question that if Sarfraz was holding this team back and team performed better after he was removed.
 
Yes of course! It is similar to Man Utd after Jose:virat

Exactly what I was saying, Mourinho compared to Solsjkaer on paper is no match, Mourinho is miles ahead of him. However United are now on an 8 consecutive win streak under the new manager.

Similarly, no matter how good of a leader Sarfraz is, he is a toxic leader. The shouting only works in the short-term and when results don't go your way and the captain is screaming at you it builds a hatred towards the skipper.

I remember during one of the SA tests, I heard Sarfraz over the stump mic calling Hasan Ali 'abhe saaley' just because he bowled the wrong line. It is a toxic environment and the introduction of Shoaib Malik as captain has brought a more relaxed, calm environment where players feel free to express themselves without thinking too much of negative consequences.
 
Just after one victory? At least wait for the series to be over.
 
Definitely, he is like the anchor slowing the team down and a racist as well.
 
Just like the Pakistan ODI team 'was' felt more rejuvenated after the departure of Azhar Ali back in 2017?
 
the interesting thing i noted in the 4th odi was shadab and imad were bowling freely
they were trying new things to get batsman out , and even when amla and faf were batting
there was not panic situation.

malik controlled the situation well he was not yelling at bowlers or fielders ball by ball.
sarfarz looses his focus every time. he doesn't read the situation well his tactics are wrong all the time.

it was a fresh air malik as a captain. and micky too was happy.
i think someone has assured malik about the captaincy so he accepted the role before he was refusing and denying this role all the time
 
the interesting thing i noted in the 4th odi was shadab and imad were bowling freely
they were trying new things to get batsman out , and even when amla and faf were batting
there was not panic situation.

malik controlled the situation well he was not yelling at bowlers or fielders ball by ball.
sarfarz looses his focus every time. he doesn't read the situation well his tactics are wrong all the time.

it was a fresh air malik as a captain. and micky too was happy.
i think someone has assured malik about the captaincy so he accepted the role before he was refusing and denying this role all the time

I was actually extremely delighted that Malik straight away put Amir on as first change. About time someone sent the message to him that he is not the second coming of Wasim Akram that he has been led to believe.
 
I want Sarfaraz in the squad but not as a captain or a middle order batsman, his best performances came at the top of the order, either play him at 1,2 or 3 and move babar down to 4.

And no, the team will go back to normal after the defeat in the decider.

Babar who is scoring 50s regularly should be demoted to 4 while Sarfraz who hardly score 20+ should be promoted. Salute to logic

P.S Sarfraz played at #5 at Asia Cup 2018 removing Hafeez entirely from the squad. His promotion (resulting Hafeez's exclusion) cost us Asia Cup.
 
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When the second specialist captain gets out playing needless shots plus starts scolding young players for one run miss or boundary conceded by a bowler (aginst seniors is a silent actor) in every match every one gets fed up
 
Definitely, he is like the anchor slowing the team down and a racist as well.

Not really a racist, kaale is a word lost in translation. Spanish speakers use the word ***** quite sparingly and also in Pakistan we dont realky have any ethnic black people (save a very small population of sheedi and makranis). I can gurantee safraz himself has been called a kaala for years due to his own dark complexion. Its inexcusable for your caption to use the term on a international tour in south africa but to call him a racist is pushing it a bit
 
There will not be any difference b/w Shoaib and Sarfraz captaincy , Amir won't be swinging the new ball and crank up his pace under Shoaib Malik captaincy , Hasan will not stop leaking runs , Shadab won't turn it more , Fakhar will not stop his brain Freeze , Imam won't score at 85+ S/R from the get go. So in short nothing will change under Shoaib Captaincy.
 
Too early to say if Malik deserves a full time captain slot. It's only been 1 match into his captaincy and it's injudicious to suggest Malik will propel Pakistan higher. If Malik loses the T20 series, Sarfraz's stock will rise higher given that he is on a streak of most T20 series win.

However, having said that, what Malik will definitely bring is calmness to the team on the field. For too long, the players have look shackled under Sarfraz and look scared to try anything other than what Sarfraz tells them to do. These sort of ball-by-ball instructions can work for someone who is 17 years old and is in an infancy stage of his international cricket but it will have a negative effect when you're baby-sitting players who have been playing for quite a while now.

This 4 match ban could be a blessing in disguise not only for Pakistan but for Sarfraz as well if he chooses to reflect on his behavior and understand that players are not his property. In equity portfolios, there is something called Tactical Allocation and Strategic Allocation for Fund managers. The tactical allocation can change in the short term but the strategic allocation will always remain within a range. Similarly Sarfraz needs to give his players a game plan before (strategic allocation) and then trust his players to deliver on that. In the meantime, allow his players leeway (tactical allocation) in how they want to achieve that strategic objective. Many times Sarfraz has been seen yelling to Hasan Ali for bowling a bouncer that has been dispatched for a four. Let Hasan bowl.

Captaincy is not that difficult if you choose to keep it simple by taking on only the challenges that are in your control. As a captain, if you start taking on the responsibility of directing bowler's line and lengths, then you are diluting your brain from the two most effective tasks that you need to focus on which are in your control: field placements and bowling changes. There's no point in constantly berating Shadab or Hasan for bowling a delivery on leg stump when the field is setup on the offside. Do you think Shadab or Hasan don't know that they've bowled a bad delivery? They are not doing it on purpose. Accept it as a bad ball and move on.

Sarfraz can come back not only as a better player but as a better captain if he decides to take time off and study the nuances of batting. If the pitch is stopping on the batsmen as it is usually in the UAE, having a short cover and short mid wicket are two better fielding positions than maybe two slips. If the batsman is continuously playing on the backfoot in Tests, the batsman with his weight on the backfoot is more likely to lob a slower fuller length delivery. Does Sarfraz know these things? He hasn't showed it with his field placements though.

The fact that people are even considering other options as captain just after 1 win speaks volumes about how poor Sarfraz has been as captain. This is certainly not the end for Sarfraz but it could be a watershed moment for him if he actually wants to use this and bring certain changes into how he captains the team. It can only be better for him.
 
I think we're jumping to conclusions here very quickly. Let's not forget that when Sarfraz took over the T20 captaincy we had just exited the T20 world cup in an embarrassing fashion. This guy comes in and we win 11 T20 series on the trot against the likes of West-indies, Australia, New Zealand, England & Zimbabwe. Let's not forget that West Indies were the 2016 T20 World Champions. Moreover, out of these 11 series wins we whitewashed the opponents 5 times.

He took over ODI captaincy after Azhar resigned. If I remember correctly, this was after we were whitewashed by Bangladesh. Sarfraz comes in and we beat West Indies 2-1 followed by the Champions Trophy. We then hosted Sri Lanka and beat them 5-0. After this we've lost to NZ 5-0 and tied with them 1-1 at home and also performed poorly in the Asia Cup.

You will notice that Sarfraz's own performances start deteriorating since the NZ tour. We had the 5-0 series win against Zimbabwe inbetween NZ and the Asia Cup but even in that tour Sarfraz hardly performed with the bat (or wasn't required to). As his own form started dropping the performance of the team as a whole started to dwindle.

I don't think Sarfraz is a bad captain considering the situation in which he took over the T20 and ODI sides and led them to respectable victories immediately after. I think the problem is he needs to be performing well to be leading well and lately that is not happening for him.
 
Too early to say if Malik deserves a full time captain slot. It's only been 1 match into his captaincy and it's injudicious to suggest Malik will propel Pakistan higher. If Malik loses the T20 series, Sarfraz's stock will rise higher given that he is on a streak of most T20 series win.

However, having said that, what Malik will definitely bring is calmness to the team on the field. For too long, the players have look shackled under Sarfraz and look scared to try anything other than what Sarfraz tells them to do. These sort of ball-by-ball instructions can work for someone who is 17 years old and is in an infancy stage of his international cricket but it will have a negative effect when you're baby-sitting players who have been playing for quite a while now.

This 4 match ban could be a blessing in disguise not only for Pakistan but for Sarfraz as well if he chooses to reflect on his behavior and understand that players are not his property. In equity portfolios, there is something called Tactical Allocation and Strategic Allocation for Fund managers. The tactical allocation can change in the short term but the strategic allocation will always remain within a range. Similarly Sarfraz needs to give his players a game plan before (strategic allocation) and then trust his players to deliver on that. In the meantime, allow his players leeway (tactical allocation) in how they want to achieve that strategic objective. Many times Sarfraz has been seen yelling to Hasan Ali for bowling a bouncer that has been dispatched for a four. Let Hasan bowl.

Captaincy is not that difficult if you choose to keep it simple by taking on only the challenges that are in your control. As a captain, if you start taking on the responsibility of directing bowler's line and lengths, then you are diluting your brain from the two most effective tasks that you need to focus on which are in your control: field placements and bowling changes. There's no point in constantly berating Shadab or Hasan for bowling a delivery on leg stump when the field is setup on the offside. Do you think Shadab or Hasan don't know that they've bowled a bad delivery? They are not doing it on purpose. Accept it as a bad ball and move on.

Sarfraz can come back not only as a better player but as a better captain if he decides to take time off and study the nuances of batting. If the pitch is stopping on the batsmen as it is usually in the UAE, having a short cover and short mid wicket are two better fielding positions than maybe two slips. If the batsman is continuously playing on the backfoot in Tests, the batsman with his weight on the backfoot is more likely to lob a slower fuller length delivery. Does Sarfraz know these things? He hasn't showed it with his field placements though.

The fact that people are even considering other options as captain just after 1 win speaks volumes about how poor Sarfraz has been as captain. This is certainly not the end for Sarfraz but it could be a watershed moment for him if he actually wants to use this and bring certain changes into how he captains the team. It can only be better for him.

[MENTION=93712]MenInG[/MENTION]reen POTW.
 
Sarfraz style captaincy only works when the team is winning. When he took over as captain, he won in West Indies and followed it up with the Champions Trophy. However, all the winning momentum blew into pieces with the brutal reality check in the Asia Cup.

As captain, your bullying tactics will not work when the team has no winning momentum and you are not performing at an individual level. I think his captaincy tenure has run its course and it is time to give Rizwan a long rope as a WK batsman. He is young, fit and has shown great improvement with the bat. Purely as a WK, he is already comfortably ahead of Sarfraz whose best days are behind him now.

As far as captaincy is concerned, we need to realise that this is an average team. No matter who leads the team, it will get pounded by the top team frequently. As a result, it hardly matters who leads the team, as long as he is among the leading performers in the team at an individual level.

Regardless of whether you make Malik, Hafeez, Babar, Imam, Masood or Rizwan as captain, or even persist with Sarfraz, our W/L ratio against the top half teams is not going to change. The solution then is to pick a captain out of this bunch who has the best performances under his belt, reasonable experience, makes the team on 100% merit and is young enough to lead the team for years.

When you consider all factors, it inevitably narrows down to Babar. Of all the players in the team at the moment, he ticks the most boxes.
 
Sarfraz style captaincy only works when the team is winning. When he took over as captain, he won in West Indies and followed it up with the Champions Trophy. However, all the winning momentum blew into pieces with the brutal reality check in the Asia Cup.

As captain, your bullying tactics will not work when the team has no winning momentum and you are not performing at an individual level. I think his captaincy tenure has run its course and it is time to give Rizwan a long rope as a WK batsman. He is young, fit and has shown great improvement with the bat. Purely as a WK, he is already comfortably ahead of Sarfraz whose best days are behind him now.

As far as captaincy is concerned, we need to realise that this is an average team. No matter who leads the team, it will get pounded by the top team frequently. As a result, it hardly matters who leads the team, as long as he is among the leading performers in the team at an individual level.

Regardless of whether you make Malik, Hafeez, Babar, Imam, Masood or Rizwan as captain, or even persist with Sarfraz, our W/L ratio against the top half teams is not going to change. The solution then is to pick a captain out of this bunch who has the best performances under his belt, reasonable experience, makes the team on 100% merit and is young enough to lead the team for years.

When you consider all factors, it inevitably narrows down to Babar. Of all the players in the team at the moment, he ticks the most boxes.

Yes, let’s give the captaincy to the only guy who consistently performs with the bat.

With the pressure the captaincy role brings to him, it’ll only affect his batting which is the last thing we need right now.
 
I was actually extremely delighted that Malik straight away put Amir on as first change. About time someone sent the message to him that he is not the second coming of Wasim Akram that he has been led to believe.

yeah the difference in bowling was manifesting clearly. i think he was shocked that he was not given the new ball and hence he put the extra effort and tried to show his worth
 
It's been 1 game. Let's see what happens after a few more games before making judgements.
 
He has already lost the dressing room because of his unprofessional sarak chaap behavior. Malik should stay till the World cup.
 
As said before sarfaraz is way too old. dont go by what papers say. he is atleast 36 plus.. age is getting on him.. he is not fit enough to play.
 
Yes, let’s give the captaincy to the only guy who consistently performs with the bat.

With the pressure the captaincy role brings to him, it’ll only affect his batting which is the last thing we need right now.

The main batsmen in other teams are also handling the burden of captaincy. There is no need to pamper Babar. He has four years and 100+ international games experience. He is not a rookie anymore - it is time for him to stand up and lead the team.

Besides, there is no point in assuming that his performance will be negatively impacted by captaincy. It is equally possible that the responsibility of captaincy will elevate his performance. Moreover, he already has leadership experience at junior level.
 
I think captaincy has affected sarfrazs game , removing the burden of captaincy can actually help his batting which has been dismal since he took over as captain. Malik isnt a long term solution either , babar will have to be given responsibilty soon.
 
Should Malik be the long term captain? No!

Did the previous game show how bad Sarfaraz has been? Yes!

I disagree with the notion that you can make whoever captain, and the result would be the same! In the game of cricket, captaincy matters a great deal . . Your team won't become world beaters . . but performance, fighting spirit and motivation levels are impacted greatly . . adn you have much more of a chance to play to your full potential than under a leader who doesn't inspire but instead . . by the looks of it, doesn't enjoy the respect of most people in the team . . a good captain has much more of a chance to get the maximum out of the team!

The situation has been exacerbated by the fact that Sarfaraz's own form has been abysmal . . with Sarfaraz's attitude on the field being so aggressive and sometimes obnoxious, its human nature to lose respect for someone whos own performance is very questionable!

Having said all that, we have 10 ODIs to go till the world cup? I think its too late to change captaincy . . so unfortunately we just have to swallow the pill I think!

However, if for any reason there is a change in captaincy before the world cup . . I would give it to Fakhar Zaman out of the current setup . . I don't see anyone else who has the attitude to do it . . and I don't think a stop gap arrangement like Malik is smart . . if you want to change captain, might as well think long term
 
Too early to say if Malik deserves a full time captain slot. It's only been 1 match into his captaincy and it's injudicious to suggest Malik will propel Pakistan higher. If Malik loses the T20 series, Sarfraz's stock will rise higher given that he is on a streak of most T20 series win.

However, having said that, what Malik will definitely bring is calmness to the team on the field. For too long, the players have look shackled under Sarfraz and look scared to try anything other than what Sarfraz tells them to do. These sort of ball-by-ball instructions can work for someone who is 17 years old and is in an infancy stage of his international cricket but it will have a negative effect when you're baby-sitting players who have been playing for quite a while now.

This 4 match ban could be a blessing in disguise not only for Pakistan but for Sarfraz as well if he chooses to reflect on his behavior and understand that players are not his property. In equity portfolios, there is something called Tactical Allocation and Strategic Allocation for Fund managers. The tactical allocation can change in the short term but the strategic allocation will always remain within a range. Similarly Sarfraz needs to give his players a game plan before (strategic allocation) and then trust his players to deliver on that. In the meantime, allow his players leeway (tactical allocation) in how they want to achieve that strategic objective. Many times Sarfraz has been seen yelling to Hasan Ali for bowling a bouncer that has been dispatched for a four. Let Hasan bowl.

Captaincy is not that difficult if you choose to keep it simple by taking on only the challenges that are in your control. As a captain, if you start taking on the responsibility of directing bowler's line and lengths, then you are diluting your brain from the two most effective tasks that you need to focus on which are in your control: field placements and bowling changes. There's no point in constantly berating Shadab or Hasan for bowling a delivery on leg stump when the field is setup on the offside. Do you think Shadab or Hasan don't know that they've bowled a bad delivery? They are not doing it on purpose. Accept it as a bad ball and move on.

Sarfraz can come back not only as a better player but as a better captain if he decides to take time off and study the nuances of batting. If the pitch is stopping on the batsmen as it is usually in the UAE, having a short cover and short mid wicket are two better fielding positions than maybe two slips. If the batsman is continuously playing on the backfoot in Tests, the batsman with his weight on the backfoot is more likely to lob a slower fuller length delivery. Does Sarfraz know these things? He hasn't showed it with his field placements though.

The fact that people are even considering other options as captain just after 1 win speaks volumes about how poor Sarfraz has been as captain. This is certainly not the end for Sarfraz but it could be a watershed moment for him if he actually wants to use this and bring certain changes into how he captains the team. It can only be better for him.

As a fund manager - this post gave me so much joy. Excellent analogy and insight here.

POTW.
 
Makes me feel comfortable that we wont be loosing match due to controlable factors like poor field placements, bowling changes, bringing down the morale of the bowlers by saying “ Saare subah se bowling kar rahe ho abhi tak line seedhi nahin hui” and going in the field without knowing the strengths of your bowlers and weaknesses of opposition batsmen.
 
too early to say if malik deserves a full time captain slot. It's only been 1 match into his captaincy and it's injudicious to suggest malik will propel pakistan higher. If malik loses the t20 series, sarfraz's stock will rise higher given that he is on a streak of most t20 series win.

However, having said that, what malik will definitely bring is calmness to the team on the field. For too long, the players have look shackled under sarfraz and look scared to try anything other than what sarfraz tells them to do. These sort of ball-by-ball instructions can work for someone who is 17 years old and is in an infancy stage of his international cricket but it will have a negative effect when you're baby-sitting players who have been playing for quite a while now.

This 4 match ban could be a blessing in disguise not only for pakistan but for sarfraz as well if he chooses to reflect on his behavior and understand that players are not his property. In equity portfolios, there is something called tactical allocation and strategic allocation for fund managers. The tactical allocation can change in the short term but the strategic allocation will always remain within a range. Similarly sarfraz needs to give his players a game plan before (strategic allocation) and then trust his players to deliver on that. In the meantime, allow his players leeway (tactical allocation) in how they want to achieve that strategic objective. Many times sarfraz has been seen yelling to hasan ali for bowling a bouncer that has been dispatched for a four. Let hasan bowl.

Captaincy is not that difficult if you choose to keep it simple by taking on only the challenges that are in your control. As a captain, if you start taking on the responsibility of directing bowler's line and lengths, then you are diluting your brain from the two most effective tasks that you need to focus on which are in your control: Field placements and bowling changes. There's no point in constantly berating shadab or hasan for bowling a delivery on leg stump when the field is setup on the offside. Do you think shadab or hasan don't know that they've bowled a bad delivery? They are not doing it on purpose. Accept it as a bad ball and move on.

Sarfraz can come back not only as a better player but as a better captain if he decides to take time off and study the nuances of batting. If the pitch is stopping on the batsmen as it is usually in the uae, having a short cover and short mid wicket are two better fielding positions than maybe two slips. If the batsman is continuously playing on the backfoot in tests, the batsman with his weight on the backfoot is more likely to lob a slower fuller length delivery. Does sarfraz know these things? He hasn't showed it with his field placements though.

The fact that people are even considering other options as captain just after 1 win speaks volumes about how poor sarfraz has been as captain. This is certainly not the end for sarfraz but it could be a watershed moment for him if he actually wants to use this and bring certain changes into how he captains the team. It can only be better for him.

potw.
 
malik should be captain till the world cup.

post worldcup i think shadab could be captain.
 
It certainly looks like. The way we played the 4th ODI, it was refreshing. Lets hope Sarfrz remains out for a while
 
If rizwan fails in 2/3 games, i can see a #BringBackSarfaraz petition coming.
 
At least this time PCB should show some common sense and be definitive. If they want to continue with Sarfraz till WC, should give a statement that Malik is only temporary arrangement; or behind the door, they should ask Sarfraz to step down on personal account (so that PCB can appoint Maliktill WC).

These discussions are not helping the team and once squad returns back home, I am sure media will try to make most out of this situation which is not good environment 4 months before WC. Also, PAK’s former players MashAllah posses motor mouth wider than Ontario 401, each day someone will tweet something or say something to make things worse.

I tend to believe PCB is still in favour of Sarfraz, hence instead of Hafeez, they have appointed Malik, who himself is struggling to keep his spot. MoHa/Malik leading PAK against AUS in UAE will be last nail in Sarfraz’s coffin, but PCB has kept that open. I think, all 3 will lead in PSL and the outcome could be the deciding factor. If Sarfraz suffers a poor PSL (& Rizwan a relatively better one), we might see a new captain against AUS.

I wrote it many times that Sarfraz must take team to SAF and that should be last cut off date - PAK must be lead by WC captain against AUS. Sarfraz wasn’t at risk from his own performance, but his stupidity allowed Malik to sneak in and expose Sarfraz's limitation as captain. I am sure team is also happier under Malik than Sarfraz, but media & former players are mostly for Sarfraz, otherwise by now he was gone.
 
At this point Babar Azam should at least be made a vice captain. So far there has been no future planning at all by the PCB. They keep on giving captaincy to players who don't even deserve to be in the team based of their performances. How can we expect this team to perform when it is held back by players who contribute next to nothing? PCB needs to realize this and give the captaincy to an appropriate player.

Captaincy is not as difficult as some people make it out to be. The captain's job is to select the right players and keep the team united and focused. The team management is also their to help the captain with strategies and whatever else he may need to improve on. Giving a young deserving player a shot at captaincy is not a bad idea.
 
Sarfaraz isn't going anywhere.He was made Captain by Selectors and he will be PCT Captain at WC, no matter how many mistakes he make. Or how Malik leads or how many runs Rizwan scores.

It's extremely rare in Pakistan for powerfull authorities to admit their mistakes. It takes a lot of character. For selectors to sack Sarfaraz from captaincy is like them admitting their mistake.It's a prestige issue more for Selectors than for Sarfaraz. Highly unlikely.

This situation is actually a double edged sword for Shoaib Malik.Malik,the individual, is smart enough to know this and I expect him to understand this reality. Selectors prestige isn't going to change Captain anyway. He shouldn't let this notion (rejuvenation without Sarfaraz) instilled in squad. He has to defuse it calmly. Otherwise he knows he won't be in the squad for WC.
 
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