Pakistani captains end their career after winning ICC Trophy, Sarfraz Ahmed begins by winning one

[yasir]

Imran Khan won 1992 ICC WC and retired after that. Younis Khan ended his T20 Career after winning Wt20 in 2009....

Sarfraz Captaincy Career has just begun after winning ICC CT 2017. This is a new thing for Pakistan, something we have not seen in past, interesting to see how he will evolve from here as a leader.

I hope he does not loose his natural instinct and street fighting nature, those are his best assets. Sarfraz talks a lot during overs, tells me that his mind is working well, which is generally hard thing to do. He also should not loose this habit, this is natural to him (talking to bowlers all the time, pretty much after every ball). He is also not very stubborn and ready to change quickly. Misbah and Azhar were more passive and laid-back, did not worked very well with Pakistani team and needs of modern time.

Since he has won on the back of young players, I think era of youth is back in Pakistan. Misbah initial success (in test) came at the back of YK, Ajmal and himself, he leaned towards mature cricketers more than young ones. Its good to see youth as main talking point of Pakistani Cricket. Pakistan does its best when inspired by youth, well we are an emotional side, extra dose of testosterone is secrete sauce for us

What do you guys think of Sarfraz's Era, how he will evolve??

 

[Syed1]

Sarfaraz is already a better captain than Misbah, Afridi and YK. I mean it isn't even a question.

His competition is IK and Waz possibly Inzi too. The fact is Sarfaraz is ready to trust youngsters and induct them in the side is a breath of fresh air compared to what we were getting for the last seven to eight years. His field placements and bowling changes are aggressive too. When was the last time you saw a Pakistani captain bringing back his premier bowlers in the 30th over. That is what made us win the CT. Pakistan picked up the most number of wickets amongst all teams in between overs 11 and 40. That is primarily due to Hasan Ali and Shadab Khan with Juni and Amir also chipping in. Certain previous captains would employ an army of spinners and keep bowling them in the middle overs to contain the runs. There was a time when Umar Gul and Aizaz Cheema were our two pacers.




All of that being said a good chunk of Saifi's success should be attributed to the PSL. He would never have been made captain had he not taken his side to the PSL final twice. Secondly it also gave him the ability to captain in pressure situations with a not-so-flashy bunch. PSL also helped in the emergence of bright young stars who aided Saifi's quest for the first trophy. If it was left to the selectors our team in the CT would have comprised of the likes of Rahat Ali and Umar Gul, perhaps Afridi would be also asked to come out of retirement. Thank God for Sarfaraz and PSL.



ALL HAIL THE NEW KING. LONG MAY HE REIGN.

 

[yasir]

Sarfaraz is already a better captain than Misbah, Afridi and YK. I mean it isn't even a question.

His competition is IK and Waz possibly Inzi too. The fact is Sarfaraz is ready to trust youngsters and induct them in the side is a breath of fresh air compared to what we were getting for the last seven to eight years. His field placements and bowling changes are aggressive too. When was the last time you saw a Pakistani captain bringing back his premier bowlers in the 30th over. That is what made us win the CT. Pakistan picked up the most number of wickets amongst all teams in between overs 11 and 40. That is primarily due to Hasan Ali and Shadab Khan with Juni and Amir also chipping in. Certain previous captains would employ an army of spinners and keep bowling them in the middle overs to contain the runs. There was a time when Umar Gul and Aizaz Cheema were our two pacers.




All of that being said a good chunk of Saifi's success should be attributed to the PSL. He would never have been made captain had he not taken his side to the PSL final twice. Secondly it also gave him the ability to captain in pressure situations with a not-so-flashy bunch. PSL also helped in the emergence of bright young stars who aided Saifi's quest for the first trophy. If it was left to the selectors our team in the CT would have comprised of the likes of Rahat Ali and Umar Gul, perhaps Afridi would be also asked to come out of retirement. Thank God for Sarfaraz and PSL.



ALL HAIL THE NEW KING. LONG MAY HE REIGN.

Not just one but all three (Amir,Junaid, Hasan) bowled between 30-35 consistently, choking runs and getting wickets... Plus he brought the best bowler(Hasan) at or around 15 overs mark. Which was hard to do with Wahab. There was no breather for teams, Amir and Junaid choke in first spell, then one choking and one wicket taking spinner and then came Hasan. This works specially well against western teams, who are not so good against spin(our 4th/5th bowler). At some point batsmen had to charge and whenever they did, they loose wickets...First match was screwed by Wahab big time, plus bowling spinner upfront, he learned from those mistakes pretty quickly

 

[ExplicitAI]

My initial prediction of Sarfraz was that he was always good enough to win an ICC trophy or to make it to semi-finals or finals of an ICC tournament. I didn't expect us to win the 2017 CT however but my prediction from before was that the next T20 WC would be Sarfraz's first ICC trophy but I was wrong. I think he has it in him to win more trophies and I would love it if we won the 2019 WC the most. 2015 was absolutely barren with last minute choices for squads, tactics and whatnot.

 

[Macho Mann]

sarfraz would be a very big star if he was playing for any other team right now (before CT win), this is not me saying but a foreign commentator and cricket analyst saying

 

[ads101]

I think people underrated our team including posters here. Compare last CT to this one. We had batsmen who averaged low 30s/less, Afridi was batting at 7 (when he is really an no.8 batsman), many in poor form. We just could compete.

Compare to before CT 2017 started. Babar was averaging 50. Sarfraz has been averaging around 40 with a high SR since he became a regular. Malik has been averaging something like 50 since 2015 even though he failed in this CT. Even Hafeez had been averaging over 40 last three years. Azhar's always gonna be a bit slow, still people weren't too surprised he scored consistently given his test exploits. And Imad averages 37 at 7, been a while since we've had someone average that at 7 (even though Imad's batting average IMO is a little misleading). Then add in Fakhar who performed from the word go. The bowling attack was plain to see there was enough quality in there to perform well.

Much easier for a batting line up to hold together when everyone is pretty much averaging 40 or above, compared to low 30s. Which is why I'm quite hopeful for the ODI future, it can be seen that 40 is becoming the benchmark for our batsmen these days, even the older guys who didn't achieve it before are doing it now. Gone are the days where we played Kamran with his mid 20 average for his "batting", Umar being kept in for his low 30 average, guys like Shehzad persisted with, Malik being kept in for his experience (the newer Malik is far more agreeable there were always excuses made for him why he didn't average more yet he is doing it now despite still batting down the order). Hafeez being under pressure to up that average to 40 or so with his bowling gone, and surprisingly doing so, even though I suspect his time is up. Our standards have been raised, it's not as easy to break in/keep a spot in this batting line up anymore, and everyone's benefitting playing in a line up which is more consistent and reliable.

 

[Hamza_]

I think people underrated our team including posters here. Compare last CT to this one. We had batsmen who averaged low 30s/less, Afridi was batting at 7 (when he is really an no.8 batsman), many in poor form. We just could compete.

Compare to before CT 2017 started. Babar was averaging 50. Sarfraz has been averaging around 40 with a high SR since he became a regular. Malik has been averaging something like 50 since 2015 even though he failed in this CT. Even Hafeez had been averaging over 40 last three years. Azhar's always gonna be a bit slow, still people weren't too surprised he scored consistently given his test exploits. And Imad averages 37 at 7, been a while since we've had someone average that at 7 (even though Imad's batting average IMO is a little misleading). Then add in Fakhar who performed from the word go. The bowling attack was plain to see there was enough quality in there to perform well.

Much easier for a batting line up to hold together when everyone is pretty much averaging 40 or above, compared to low 30s. Which is why I'm quite hopeful for the ODI future, it can be seen that 40 is becoming the benchmark for our batsmen these days, even the older guys who didn't achieve it before are doing it now. Gone are the days where we played Kamran with his mid 20 average for his "batting", Umar being kept in for his low 30 average, guys like Shehzad persisted with, Malik being kept in for his experience (the newer Malik is far more agreeable there were always excuses made for him why he didn't average more yet he is doing it now despite still batting down the order). Hafeez being under pressure to up that average to 40 or so with his bowling gone, and surprisingly doing so, even though I suspect his time is up. Our standards have been raised, it's not as easy to break in/keep a spot in this batting line up anymore, and everyone's benefitting playing in a line up which is more consistent and reliable.

There were none of Shehzad, Umar Akmal and Afridi in CT2013.

We had Shafiq, Amin, Misbah, Malik and so on.

 

[Titan24]

Very good thread and title.

 

[ads101]

There were none of Shehzad, Umar Akmal and Afridi in CT2013.

We had Shafiq, Amin, Misbah, Malik and so on.

You're right sorry just remember Afridi batting at 7 before he got dropped. More making a point comparing previous teams than 2013 team exactly. Kamran, Shafiq, amin were all playing. With Hafeez and Malik playing too woefully out of form. Amin had a worse batting record than Afridi at that point anyway lol. Remember Farhat coming in some time too (not at CT) but around then. Was dark times in our ODI stage, seniors who were underperforming were returning to the side left right and centre, our batting looked terrible. Either way the CT 2013 was far worse than the current one.

 

[Faisalsq092]

There were none of Shehzad, Umar Akmal and Afridi in CT2013.

We had Shafiq, Amin, Misbah, Malik and so on.

How did u forget Sir Imran Farhat. Your cricketing memory should be questioned.

 

[msb314]

Sarfaraz is already a better captain than Misbah, Afridi and YK. I mean it isn't even a question.

His competition is IK and Waz possibly Inzi too. The fact is Sarfaraz is ready to trust youngsters and induct them in the side is a breath of fresh air compared to what we were getting for the last seven to eight years. His field placements and bowling changes are aggressive too. When was the last time you saw a Pakistani captain bringing back his premier bowlers in the 30th over. That is what made us win the CT. Pakistan picked up the most number of wickets amongst all teams in between overs 11 and 40. That is primarily due to Hasan Ali and Shadab Khan with Juni and Amir also chipping in. Certain previous captains would employ an army of spinners and keep bowling them in the middle overs to contain the runs. There was a time when Umar Gul and Aizaz Cheema were our two pacers.




All of that being said a good chunk of Saifi's success should be attributed to the PSL. He would never have been made captain had he not taken his side to the PSL final twice. Secondly it also gave him the ability to captain in pressure situations with a not-so-flashy bunch. PSL also helped in the emergence of bright young stars who aided Saifi's quest for the first trophy. If it was left to the selectors our team in the CT would have comprised of the likes of Rahat Ali and Umar Gul, perhaps Afridi would be also asked to come out of retirement. Thank God for Sarfaraz and PSL.



ALL HAIL THE NEW KING. LONG MAY HE REIGN.

Ameen well said!

Although I think Malik would have made a better captain - Sarfraz is doing a damn fine job!

 

[Suleiman]

I think people underrated our team including posters here. Compare last CT to this one. We had batsmen who averaged low 30s/less, Afridi was batting at 7 (when he is really an no.8 batsman), many in poor form. We just could compete.

Compare to before CT 2017 started. Babar was averaging 50. Sarfraz has been averaging around 40 with a high SR since he became a regular. Malik has been averaging something like 50 since 2015 even though he failed in this CT. Even Hafeez had been averaging over 40 last three years. Azhar's always gonna be a bit slow, still people weren't too surprised he scored consistently given his test exploits. And Imad averages 37 at 7, been a while since we've had someone average that at 7 (even though Imad's batting average IMO is a little misleading). Then add in Fakhar who performed from the word go. The bowling attack was plain to see there was enough quality in there to perform well.

Much easier for a batting line up to hold together when everyone is pretty much averaging 40 or above, compared to low 30s. Which is why I'm quite hopeful for the ODI future, it can be seen that 40 is becoming the benchmark for our batsmen these days, even the older guys who didn't achieve it before are doing it now. Gone are the days where we played Kamran with his mid 20 average for his "batting", Umar being kept in for his low 30 average, guys like Shehzad persisted with, Malik being kept in for his experience (the newer Malik is far more agreeable there were always excuses made for him why he didn't average more yet he is doing it now despite still batting down the order). Hafeez being under pressure to up that average to 40 or so with his bowling gone, and surprisingly doing so, even though I suspect his time is up. Our standards have been raised, it's not as easy to break in/keep a spot in this batting line up anymore, and everyone's benefitting playing in a line up which is more consistent and reliable.

Agreed. Our darkest days were in 2015 when you had legends Sohail Tanvir and Anwar Ali opening the bowling with Azhar and Shehzad trotting out to open the batting.

Azhar is still there, but he showed a willingness to improve since then unlike Shehzad.