Oh for gods sake the anti Sarfraz brigade is back
Your the one who is always saying the results of bi-laterals don't matter so why are you bringing this up as a counter argument against Sarfraz's captaincy. Anyway's from those 24 games lost, 5 were against Australia playing our B team. If anything that goes to show that Sarfraz was man enough to rest a series or two and test out new blood, something which our current captain will never do
Results against B and C sides don't matter because it doesn't reflect the actual capability of the team, but a bilateral series a against a full-strength top team is the most reliable litmus test.
One-off upsets can take place in tournaments, but over the course of a series, the stronger team will almost always prevail. After winning the CT and blanking a hapless Sri Lanka 5-0 in the UAE, Sarfaraz's Pakistan showed its true colors in 2018-2019 and got exposed big time once they started playing series against full-strength opposition in ODI cricket.
In January 2018, Pakistan went to NZ for a 5 match ODI series and lost 5-0 against a full-strength NZ. In September 2018, Pakistan got humiliated by India twice and Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in the UAE.
Prior to the World Cup, Pakistan lost the ODI series vs England 4-0 and the only reason they didn't get whitewashed is because one of the matches was rained off.
Speaking of being a man enough to rest and test new blood, Sarfaraz's replacement against Australia in the ODI series (Rizwan) scored 2 hundreds in 5 games, something Sarfaraz couldn't achieve for years. He was so insecure and felt so threatened by Rizwan that Rizwan couldn't even get into the 15 man squad for the World Cup.
Sarfraz was completely out of sorts when Rizwan grabbed his chance and scored 2 hundreds against Australia, which meant that Sarfaraz made sure that Rizwan stays out of the picture so that he is not displaced. However, life comes at you fast and after the World Cup, Mickey was not there anymore to protect him and Misbah made the right call by not only sacking Sarfaraz as captain but also by replacing him with Rizwan.
I don't like Rizwan, I don't like his antics and all the fake injuries etc., but there is no doubt that he is a far better WK batsman than Sarfaraz ever was especially in white ball cricket.
I've repeated this same point regarding the 2019 world cup for years, we should have made the semi's the only thing that went against us was luck. Our game vs Sri Lanka was rained out, England lost 2 out of 2 games vs Ind and Nz and even 1 loss would have had us in the semis. Fact is under Sarfraz we were able to beat the two world cup finalists and that in itself is a big achievement
Not luck but Pakistan's mediocrity went against Pakistan. Pakistan had one foot out of the door after match 1 when it got bundled for 103 against the West Indies. That thrashing nuked the NRR and Pakistan was playing catch up since that game. This happened after Pakistan were given the luxury of playing a 5 match ODI series vs England in England immediately before the World Cup. They had all the time in the world to prepare and get acclimatized to the conditions and this is what they produced in the opening game.
Furthermore, please don't give me that nonsense excuse that the Sri Lanka match was washed out and we would have beaten them by a million runs or 50 wickets and qualified for the semifinals. If Pakistan and Sri Lanka could beat England, if Bangladesh could beat South Africa, if West Indies could steamroll Pakistan and if Afghanistan could push India and Pakistan to the last ball, Sri Lanka could have also beaten Pakistan.
Besides, the India vs New Zealand match was also washed out and New Zealand beat India twice in the World Cup - warm up and semifinal. It is possible that they could have also beaten them in the group match which would have eliminated Pakistan regardless of the outcome of Pakistan vs Sri Lanka.
Pakistan did not deserve to qualify for the semifinals based on the matches that actually took place. Pakistan had 8 completed matches and their fate was in their hands but they weren't good enough. No one forced them to lose to India and Australia. Where was Sarfaraz's great captaincy when Rohit Sharma was going bonkers and he was yawning with his belly sticking out?
And so what if Pakistan beat both finalists? Do you want ICC to present a special "Beat Both Finalists" trophy to Sarfaraz? It is not an achievement at all, especially when Pakistan got hammered by a team that finished second last (West Indies) and had to rely on umpire blunders to scrape past the team that finished last (Afghanistan).
West Indies only won 2 out of 9 matches and one of them came against the great captain Sarfaraz.
Beating England and New Zealand was an 'achievement' but what would you call this?
Pakistan 105 all out (21.4 overs)
West Indies 108/3 (13.4 overs)
All of our captain have been blanked in South Africa so I wouldn't blame him for that. Anyhow your forgetting that we beat Australia at home (something else Babar couldn't achieve) and we also drew a series with England away, the same England team that beat India 4-1. Again that by itself just shows what a leader he was
If Sarfaraz was that great a captain, how come he couldn't do anything different or anything better compared to the previous captains in South Africa?
I'm not forgetting that Pakistan beat Australia 1-0 in the 2018 UAE Test series. What you are forgetting - or choosing to forget - is that that series was playing on turning tracks unlike the highways that were dished out to Australia in 2022. You can't compare the two series and besides, beating Australia in a home series doesn't make up for losing at home to Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Winning home Test series is the minimum requirement for captain who is hailed as some great and legendary leader by his delusional fans.
Also, how can you compare a 2 match Test series with a 5 match Test series? Pakistan drew with England only because it was a 2 match series not 3, 4 or 5. Considering how awful Sarfaraz's captaincy was in Tests, there is no way he would have avoided a defeat in England.
A win is a win and under Sarfraz we had won 13 consecutive T20 games. Doesn't matter if it's vs A, B or Z teams, winning 13 games in a row is incredible. Anyway the first game we lost after that streak didn't even occur under Sarfraz's captaincy so once again your being intellectually dishonest
No, a win is not a win. Context matters.
This is the same arrogance and false sense of achievement that we saw with Babar, the current Pakistan team and their delusional fans. Number 1 ranking this and that, best fast bowling this and that. All of that blew in their faces once they started playing against full-strength sides.
Sarfaraz had the same story in T20Is. He kept beating B and C sides in series and he was lucky there was no T20 World Cup in that period otherwise he and his team would have been exposed just like Babar and his team got exposed.
An average of 32 batting at 6 in ODIs and T20s is good. His average of 24 came from the fact that he was always forced to martial the tail and whenever he did get the opportunity to bat with the top order he would score plenty (see his innings in the 2nd test vs Australia)
He wasn't marshalling the tail; the tail was marshalling him. He hid behind tailenders like Hassan, Amir and Wahab on numerous occasions because he didn't have the confidence to bat above them. If you have more faith in your bowlers to slog quick runs at the death than you have in yourself, should you really be in the team? Definitely not.
Sarfaraz didn't hide in the lower-order because he was selfless; he hid because he wanted to protect himself. If he was selfless, Rizwan would have made the World Cup squad after his performance against Australia in the ODI series two months prior to the World Cup.
Joke of the century is claiming that Sarfaraz was a great captain, his team was performing really well and sacking him was a bad decision.