POTW: Ilan Bluestone

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An excellent and detailed post which makes some important points about Sarfaraz Ahmed's suitability as captain is our POTW!

Congratulations to [MENTION=139505]Ilan Bluestone[/MENTION]

http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...istan-cricket-history&p=10232805#post10232805

Probably one of the most selfish actually. Blames others for failures, doesn't come up the order and in fact puts bowlers ahead of himself.

One of the worst captains I can ever remember.

Those who constantly say well he keeps, there are better keepers in Pakistan, and his so called "mind" is so great that we constantly get whitewashed left and right in all formats of the game.

Let's analyze our "selfless" captain in all formats of the game:

Test- So our great captain had a purple patch in the years 2014 and 2015, a purple patch which made me myself quite impressed with him. He would score fast centuries under Misbah, and put his name on the map.

Then due to his great performances, and the thought that he was humble and his mind was sharp, the captaincy was given to him. It was a new era of Pakistan cricket, and we had a good leader. 2016 though, the numbers start to dip, right before he is given captaincy, and it is the beginning of mediocrity.

Now, 2017 comes, Misbah is gone, and the reigns are all his. He had a dip in performances as we see in 2016, but it is okay, everyone has a little dip sometimes. Captaincy should help? Nope.

His first test, oh so interesting, a we lost by 21 runs. Well after our token batting collapse, our captain, who had two years in the 60s, was stumped, not caught, bowled, no, stumped. I do not blame him solely for this loss, but remember, we scored 400+ innings. What was his contribution...

Lost his first test series as captain on their home ground. Okay, let's give him some leeway, he is starting new, and one fifty in his first four innings as captain, let us forgive that.

2018 somehow though as we see from above led to an even worse batsmen.

We start with the Ireland test that we scrapingly defeated. Our captain, in a long line of to come failures with the bat, can now focus on the keeping which is what his focus is. What comes of that though? In the second innings, we get this:

Mohammad Amir to Joyce, no run, dropped? Nicked for certain, but did it carry? Full just outside off, but the ball shapes away slightly, and takes the outside edge. Drops in front of first slip, but definitely a chance for the keeper, because he stands slightly forward. Nervy start

Rahat Ali to Thompson, no run, edged, and just short of the diving keeper! A regulation nick to a lifter on off stump, but it was always heading down, so Sarfraz ended up sprawling at first slip's feet... EDIT: I think that did carry actually. A tough chance but a drop all the same

Routine chances, dropped.

Now all of 2018:

2 half centuries, well done against Australia, but as captain now, that is 11 test matches in a row as captain, and three half centuries. This is below even poor for a keeper captain. Do we act as though Dhoni was not an all time great with the bat?

Okay, let's skip tests, despite the fact with Misbah we were still fairly respectable at the very least in UAE, and sure we can say Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq being collosal failures had a big hand to play, are we to just let the captain off saying that he is not a batsmen but a keeper and should not get blame that he also had a bat in hand?

Let's step away from tests, and focus on the loved part of cricket, ODI's.

Sarfraz returned after an in and out career, when the Akmal time was over, and he had a resurgent worldcup. Came in as an opener and it was this excitement. Let's look at the numbers since his return..

Azhar Ali was named captain and a colossal failure so Sarfraz was put in place and 2016 looked fairly good. Let's ignore we lost every match against good teams except on very good performance for Sarfraz giving him MOM against England and say good batting year, and 2017 as well a good yer because we won the CT and he did decent with a 38 average in only a few matches as he was not very necessary.

2018-2019, we can see the numbers, and then we see these types of scorecards:

So Sarfraz thinks he is not a power hitter, puts in others, okay fine, he thinks Shadab or Hasan Ali have more power to pinch hit, then let them play, but then the innings is a disaster and you need an anchor and you put full time bowlers above you? What is that strategy exactly?

I won't get into T20 because it is not a true serious format of the game.

Sarfraz came into the team through hard work, and now we can clearly see all that matters is himself and his perception to keep his spot. A CT win does not give him a life time get out of jail for free card, especially when he did not really do much in terms of production.

We cannot constantly say well he is a keeper, his job is not to score runs, when most teams have their keeper as key run producers.

Those who say we do not have better, I am sure we can find a better bat as we have seen from Rizwan, and if we again say batting is irrelevant, there are in fact better keepers in Pakistan.

We aren't winning series after series either, we are getting whitewashed, so why so much protection for Sarfraz will always confuse me.

You are always a batsmen or a bowler before anything else, and if you cannot do either of these things at a world class level, you do not belong.

Captaincy is important, but more important is production with either ball or bat, and that should be the first thing we look at when selecting, not ability to lead, and the irony of having such a great leader, when said leader only leads us to failure is a marvel.

 

[Suleiman]

Singlehandedly crushed every Sarfraz loving fan in existence.

Good job.

 

[Mamoon]

Brilliant. No post or poster has exposed Sarfraz better.

 

[Saj]

Good work.

Well-deserved.

 

[topspin]

Superb post from a fine poster.

Sarfraz hype brigade need to stay asleep.

 

[gazza619]

Wow

Legendary post!

 

[TeamPak95]

Great, analytical post. I'm not a Sarfraz Ahmed hater but this is the cold, hard truth. He's been nothing short of pathetic in these past 2+ years. However, whether we like it or not, he's our captain for this WC and will have my utmost support in taking Pakistan far in the tournament. If these types of pathetic performances continue, then that should be the end for Sarfraz.

 

[Mueez]

It is as simple as it can get.

Pakistan make it to the semis - Sarfraz stays.

Pakistan don’t make it to the semis - Sarfraz leaves.

 

[Chokli]

Brilliant post, very deserving

 

[Gullycricket]

Great post.Funny how some posters will keep on hating Imam and criticize him even when he scores runs but fail to see this about Sarfi.
If we can drop Amir for being poor after CT why not Sarf

 

[Hasan123]

Very good post. I have thought Sarfraz was rubbish for months before he was exposed. But even I could not put it in this detail.

Great post with logical explanations.

 

[Adijazz1706]

Great post, however Dhoni has never been great with the bat in Tests, hell Sarfaraz probably still has a better Test average IIRC

 

[Hasan123]

Great post, however Dhoni has never been great with the bat in Tests, hell Sarfaraz probably still has a better Test average IIRC

Dhoni always made the test team on merit, once he didn't he retired from the format. Sarfraz doesn't make the test team on merit and is still the captain despite rubbish results.

 

[Dr_Bassim]

Sarfraz lovers will only appear in this thread once Pakistan somehow reaches semi finals.

Otherwise, they will blame batting or bowling for defeat.

 

[Ilan Bluestone]

Thanks guys.

Honestly I just care for Pakistan cricket.

If Sarfraz improves, I would be the first to applaud him, but consistently over time, it is just poor performances.

I have no allegiance other than to winning.

I feel Imam for example has gotten too much hate despite the fact that if you take his name away and he is not too far off from the production from Babar.

He will be our WC captain, I don't expect much, but I will be happily wrong if he does well, because that likely means Pakistan having decent success (which to me is Semi's).

 

[Savak]

To be honest like most players in our cricketing set up. Sarfaraz lost the hunger, became content with where he is and became relaxed complacent and perhaps his work ethic suffered once he became a permanent member of the team

Afridi has highlighted this problem with Pakistani players in general where once set in the team, they are no longer motivated to go to the next level

 

[Chokli]

Thanks guys.

Honestly I just care for Pakistan cricket.

If Sarfraz improves, I would be the first to applaud him, but consistently over time, it is just poor performances.

I have no allegiance other than to winning.

I feel Imam for example has gotten too much hate despite the fact that if you take his name away and he is not too far off from the production from Babar.

He will be our WC captain, I don't expect much, but I will be happily wrong if he does well, because that likely means Pakistan having decent success (which to me is Semi's).

Remove Imam Ul Haq and put in Saad Ali, Saud Shakeel, Saif Badar, etc any one of PPs favourites and they'll be hyped to the moon