Sarfaraz Ahmed the captain in game changing pressure situations?

[Savak]

He is mostly an on top captain. Always barking, shouting, commenting on his players when things are either going his way, when there are still decent enough runs left for the opposition but the moment the opposition counter punches and the game is in the balance, he just wilts and his body language goes for a toss, his bowling changes suffer and all these things permeate to the rest of the team.

He is not a rookie captain, he has had captaincy experience from his U-19 days to domestic cricket, he was groomed for captaincy for a long time, it is inexcusable for him to show this kind of Cowardice all the time in a pattern. Disappointing stuff from him.

 

[Aman]

Tbf, I don't think he could could do much with the way Colin was batting

 

[Chief Destroyer]

You really don't understand cricket much, do ya? You couldn't have asked for better captaincy. He was excellent.

 

[Savak]

You really don't understand cricket much, do ya? You couldn't have asked for better captaincy. He was excellent.

I am pointing to a pattern. He has shown this many times i.e. Jason Mohammad innings in the WI ODI, Evin Lewis inning in the WI T-20, India first CT match, NZ series.

He wilts under pressure. Dhoni in comparison is always calm and Dhoni has pulled off master strokes in extreme pressure situations for e.g. the Bangladesh India match where his tactics and cool head ensured Bangladesh lost in the final over.

 

[Chief Destroyer]

I am pointing to a pattern. He has shown this many times i.e. Jason Mohammad innings in the WI ODI, Evin Lewis inning in the WI T-20, India first CT match, NZ series.

He wilts under pressure. Dhoni in comparison is always calm and Dhoni has pulled off master strokes in extreme pressure situations for e.g. the Bangladesh India match where his tactics and cool head ensured Bangladesh lost in the final over.

You accept they've played exceptional cricket and give credit to the opposition and move on. Just like Australia will after getting smashed by Roy. Stop being emotional desi aunties.

 

[Mamoon]

He lacks composure. When things are not going his way, he loses the plot and panics. He is the type of captain who needs to be on top to look good, but he is not someone who can do much when the opposition are on the charge.

 

[Savak]

You accept they've played exceptional cricket and give credit to the opposition and move on. Just like Australia will after getting smashed by Roy. Stop being emotional desi aunties.

I am pointing to a fact that Sarfaraz wilts badly when put under pressure and has not shown the ability to lift the side up from difficult positions

 

[Chief Destroyer]

I am pointing to a fact that Sarfaraz wilts badly when put under pressure and has not shown the ability to lift the side up from difficult positions

Sample size is too small. And there haven't been many in history who could.

 

[ask_analyse_act]

I am pointing to a fact that Sarfaraz wilts badly when put under pressure and has not shown the ability to lift the side up from difficult positions

He becomes blank and out of plans as if the match is over.. As u mentioned about dhoni, yes he has a calm composure when the opposition is on charge by the experience of the results from his captaincy, the team and the fans believe in his instincts of keeping calm and pouncing when his time comes...

For an example when Colin was hitting as such , dhoni would have pulled out a trick by making his spin bowler flight the ball and throw a wide to stump him off or any of his other tricks like changing ends for the spinner or asking him to go for his shots on the longest parts of the ground... Dhoni has a lot of mind work to play with when the opposition counter punches...Sarfraz lacks them for sure no doubt, hope he learns instead of just shouting..

 

[OmarKhan99]

He is mostly an on top captain. Always barking, shouting, commenting on his players when things are either going his way, when there are still decent enough runs left for the opposition but the moment the opposition counter punches and the game is in the balance, he just wilts and his body language goes for a toss, his bowling changes suffer and all these things permeate to the rest of the team.

He is not a rookie captain, he has had captaincy experience from his U-19 days to domestic cricket, he was groomed for captaincy for a long time, it is inexcusable for him to show this kind of Cowardice all the time in a pattern. Disappointing stuff from him.

I observed the exact same thing but drew a different conclusion. Sarfraz yelling at players is more to reel them up and get them off of their heels and onto their toes. Basically, he yells at them to not slack off when sensing blood. This works nicely when you are up for the fight and you want to take control of the game, but not when you are being smacked to all parts. The last thing a bowler being hit brutally needs is a shouting and that could actually further harm the bowling. Having said that, I believe Sarfraz needs to learn the art of slowing the game down. When some batsman is on top, you need to talk to your bowlers and also meticulously set your field and purposely drag the batman's momentum. Still early days as an International Captain, he will learn.

 

[Hamstead_joy]

SArfaraz captaincy has been hit with some new challenges, initially biased decisions, rain and tasting some modern cricket by the kiwis. The New Zealanders have always been good with analysing the opposition and plan accordingly. The initial ODI matches are the easier ones in New Zealand, then the comeup with plans where close in fielding is the most important through which they block strike rotation.

In this series New Zealanders have made use of their fast bat swings to counter bowling on a very short ground, unseemly pitch with no break and more bounce.

Sarfaraz could've fought this if his biggest challenge the deadwood seniors would not have been there.

Through out the series Sarfaraz played with 5 players [Fahim, Fakhar, Shadab, Hassan, Rumman]cagainst the NZ XI carrying pile of senior trash around which would never work. His only mistake was to consistently play the batting middle order [Azam, Hafeez, Malik, Azhar] in the early 2 matches after which they could not come back. He and Arthur did not play Amir Yamin intentionally to protect Imad Wasim place in the team which can be seen as a selfish biased mistake by Sarfaraz.

This mistake can't be blamed on him only he had no choice its the chief selector fault. Chief selector again announced the same team for T20 which was'nt able to make 20 runs together. People are celebrating Harris selfish 50 as some thing miraculous. Even a U-19 player who replace any of the senior batsmen would look even more better than them due to his positive game and application.

 

[Azeem Zafar]

Though Sarfi is better than our previous ODI captains (Azhar, Misbah, Afridi) he still makes some aweful decisions on & off the field. His lack of planning & consistancy is often visible during a tense situation, he needed to show some guts and come at #5 as the early losses were somewhat recovered by a good partnership yet he chose to hide behind Malik who as expected failed again. After taking 4 quick wickets, he continued with Haris and Faheem, Williamson knew that they just need to take the game till 40 overs with wickets in hand and Sarfi helped their plan. He had no clue about the strentghs of Grandhomme, first 2 overs he faced were bowled by Haris (part-timer) & Amir (our worst pacer right now). Hassan had the best chance to take his wicket yet he was called when the match was done and dusted. Sarfaraz as a captain totally dissappointed me today but I hope he'll learn from his mistakes to come out as a better captain & player.

 

[Pete Rose]

Tbh I dont think there's much wrong with his captaincy. He is ultra expressive (Which can be annoying when he is marshalling the fielders to squeeze the opposition. Yesterday's game was a good example: i think he captained very well to drag the team back from that rollicking opening start by NZ.
If anything I think he was actually subdued when Collin D-whatever was striking. He needed to put the boot deep in for Aamir in particular.

 

[Pete Rose]

Though Sarfi is better than our previous ODI captains (Azhar, Misbah, Afridi) he still makes some aweful decisions on & off the field. His lack of planning & consistancy is often visible during a tense situation, he needed to show some guts and come at #5 as the early losses were somewhat recovered by a good partnership yet he chose to hide behind Malik who as expected failed again. After taking 4 quick wickets, he continued with Haris and Faheem, Williamson knew that they just need to take the game till 40 overs with wickets in hand and Sarfi helped their plan. He had no clue about the strentghs of Grandhomme, first 2 overs he faced were bowled by Haris (part-timer) & Amir (our worst pacer right now). Hassan had the best chance to take his wicket yet he was called when the match was done and dusted. Sarfaraz as a captain totally dissappointed me today but I hope he'll learn from his mistakes to come out as a better captain & player.

Barring the batting comment, not sure if we saw the same game yesterday.

 

[Azeem Zafar]

Barring the batting comment, not sure if we saw the same game yesterday.

Latham got out in 20th over, Hasan was given the ball in 31st. Only one over (21st) was bowled by Rumaan in between, rest were from Haris, Faheem & Shadab.

Williamson got out in 35th over, 36th was bowled by Hasan. He gave away 1 four & bowled 1 bouncer (Sarfi scolded him for that as it went a bit high for wide, it was the right intent against grandhomme in my opionion). Next over was bowled by Haris, Grandhomme started his power show straight away.

 

[aloo paratha]

Tbf, I don't think he could could do much with the way Colin was batting

Maybe he could've stumped DeGrandhomme when shadab made the chance rather than letting it go for 4

 

[prop558]

Maybe he could've stumped DeGrandhomme when shadab made the chance rather than letting it go for 4

There was never a stump chance on that delivery. Any keeper could have missed it, including our favourite Akmal brothers. Lolz

 

[prop558]

A much much much better Captain than the rubbish past captains Misbah, Hafeez, Malik and Azhar Ali

 

[Pete Rose]

Latham got out in 20th over, Hasan was given the ball in 31st. Only one over (21st) was bowled by Rumaan in between, rest were from Haris, Faheem & Shadab.

Williamson got out in 35th over, 36th was bowled by Hasan. He gave away 1 four & bowled 1 bouncer (Sarfi scolded him for that as it went a bit high for wide, it was the right intent against grandhomme in my opionion). Next over was bowled by Haris, Grandhomme started his power show straight away.

I dont know how that constitutes bad captaincy. They pretty much strangled NZ. Hasan Ali bowled an ineffectual over and haris continued to bowl because unlike with the hindsight you assume that Colin would have smacked haris, there was every reason to continue bowling with him. Shadab came on after as he was Sarfaraz's trump card.
The only criticism from yesterday was that Sarfaraz should have given his opening bowlers a rocket for continuing to bowl short.

 

[Azeem Zafar]

I dont know how that constitutes bad captaincy. They pretty much strangled NZ. Hasan Ali bowled an ineffectual over and haris continued to bowl because unlike with the hindsight you assume that Colin would have smacked haris, there was every reason to continue bowling with him. Shadab came on after as he was Sarfaraz's trump card.
The only criticism from yesterday was that Sarfaraz should have given his opening bowlers a rocket for continuing to bowl short.

'Strangling' NZ batting was not going to help & It didn't, with short boundries & excellent chase history NZ just needed to bat till 45-47 overs & Williamson-Nichols-Grandhomme achieved that. Grandhomme was always going to be a threat but there was no proper plan against him. I am not usually someone who goes on and on against Sarfi, he won the CT for us not long ago afterall. But he has made some baffling mistakes throughout the series from selection to tactics. I know there is a SC & team management who are supposed to do their jobs but Sarfaraz is expected to be the saviour of this ODI team, we do not need another YES SIR captain like Azhar or Misbah.

Coming back to the match, I think no one in their right mind would go for Haris against the likes of Grandhomme/Pandya/Buttler etc while defending a small total on a good batting pitch. Sarfi needed to attack him from the word go but he provided him the chance to middle the ball properly. And not to forget, HE MISSED A STUMPING CHANCE OFF GRANDHOMME (not the first keeping mistake from him though) when it was still possible for us to come back in the game.

 

[Azeem Zafar]

Sarfaraz as a captain as well as player has totally gone downhill after the CT. And the dilemma is we do not have any other option to captain this side right now. He really should get his act stright before any major setback. His fitness is abysmal, his form is bad (mainly due to him batting too low), he was never a good keeper to start with & bad fitness has worsened this issue, he becomes a mental midget as soon as opposition comes hard at him and his team.

 

[Savak]

Sarfaraz as a captain as well as player has totally gone downhill after the CT. And the dilemma is we do not have any other option to captain this side right now. He really should get his act stright before any major setback. His fitness is abysmal, his form is bad (mainly due to him batting too low), he was never a good keeper to start with & bad fitness has worsened this issue, he becomes a mental midget as soon as opposition comes hard at him and his team.

Sarfaraz on paper is 30-31 years old but is already showing the body language of a 35-36 years old. Personally don't forsee a long career for him.

 

[Aman]

Maybe he could've stumped DeGrandhomme when shadab made the chance rather than letting it go for 4

lmao that wasn't a chance, no keeper gets that. It turned too sharply and he was blinded by Colin running down the wicket. He isn't getting close to it unless he has superhuman reflexes, which he doesn't.

 

[Savak]

lmao that wasn't a chance, no keeper gets that. It turned too sharply and he was blinded by Colin running down the wicket. He isn't getting close to it unless he has superhuman reflexes, which he doesn't.

Every stumping occurs because the batsman is advancing down the track. Dhoni might have stumped the batsman

 

[Buffet]

I am pointing to a pattern. He has shown this many times i.e. Jason Mohammad innings in the WI ODI, Evin Lewis inning in the WI T-20, India first CT match, NZ series.

He wilts under pressure. Dhoni in comparison is always calm and Dhoni has pulled off master strokes in extreme pressure situations for e.g. the Bangladesh India match where his tactics and cool head ensured Bangladesh lost in the final over.

He becomes blank and out of plans as if the match is over.. As u mentioned about dhoni, yes he has a calm composure when the opposition is on charge by the experience of the results from his captaincy, the team and the fans believe in his instincts of keeping calm and pouncing when his time comes...

For an example when Colin was hitting as such , dhoni would have pulled out a trick by making his spin bowler flight the ball and throw a wide to stump him off or any of his other tricks like changing ends for the spinner or asking him to go for his shots on the longest parts of the ground... Dhoni has a lot of mind work to play with when the opposition counter punches...Sarfraz lacks them for sure no doubt, hope he learns instead of just shouting..

Comparing him to Dhoni is the problem here. Pretty much every captain will fall short if you use Dhoni as a benchmark for captaincy in ODI format. You can't criticize some one for being inferior to Dhoni.

 

[Buffet]

Every stumping occurs because the batsman is advancing down the track. Dhoni might have stumped the batsman

Yes, Dhoni could have, but then he is probably the best I have seen when it comes to stumping. You can't use stumping by Dhoni to criticize missed chance here. Most keepers would have missed.

 

[OmarKhan99]

'Strangling' NZ batting was not going to help & It didn't, with short boundries & excellent chase history NZ just needed to bat till 45-47 overs & Williamson-Nichols-Grandhomme achieved that. Grandhomme was always going to be a threat but there was no proper plan against him. I am not usually someone who goes on and on against Sarfi, he won the CT for us not long ago afterall. But he has made some baffling mistakes throughout the series from selection to tactics. I know there is a SC & team management who are supposed to do their jobs but Sarfaraz is expected to be the saviour of this ODI team, we do not need another YES SIR captain like Azhar or Misbah.

Coming back to the match, I think no one in their right mind would go for Haris against the likes of Grandhomme/Pandya/Buttler etc while defending a small total on a good batting pitch. Sarfi needed to attack him from the word go but he provided him the chance to middle the ball properly. And not to forget, HE MISSED A STUMPING CHANCE OFF GRANDHOMME (not the first keeping mistake from him though) when it was still possible for us to come back in the game.

Don't think there was a chance there. As far as I remember, the batsman's feet never left the crease and if they did, it was for such a short amount of time that Sarfraz couldn't possibly have collected the ball and broken the bails off in the nick of time. Though I agree about de Grandhomme part. The bowlers didn't study him. Just one video of him vs India would have been sufficient to realize his affinity to the mid wicket region and that his favorite shot is the clip that he played to Haris for his first of many sixes. I believe Shadab and Haris should have just bowled wide of off stump instead. Amir was just awful with his variation, but Rumman did well in his capacity. I would've given the ball to Hasan and Faheem and make them bowl slower balls outside of the off stump (much like what India did). But this all in hindsight. You can't blame Sarfraz for this. He is supposed to trust his strike bowlers to do that. Sadly, they didn't and it's all part of the game. And for the Hasan bit, Sarfraz couldn't have given the ball to him. He was struggling already with the groin issue and such pressure could have aggravated it. Hasan was clearly not 100% and was looking dull and not to forget his tendency to bowl short ball after short ball when he was attacked. PCB needs to learn to manage workload and not give them a green signal for every single franchise.

 

[Hasan123]

He is getting more praise for his captaincy than he should because of Misbah and Azhar being rubbish ODI captains.

 

[Savak]

The quality of a captain is tested in pressure situations.

Sarfaraz i am afraid just loses the plot whenever the opposition counter punches. His bowling changes, field placings and body language just goes for a toss.

This tour has actually revealed what an over rated captain he really is. Has absolutely zero clue on how to bring the best out his bowlers, batsmen, himself. Right now question marks are being asked about his own place in the 11 and that is always a big problem when commanding respect from his team.

 

[hailian]

Sarfaraz garbage captaincy is exposed now. Now he better use Aamir 4th over where sun doesn’t shine.