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Should Sarfaraz Ahmed remain the captain if Pakistan loses in South Africa?

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Sarfraz Ahmed has been riding his luck for quite a while now. His batting performances have been less than stellar. The occasional 50 here and there is simply not good enough, and a captain is always expected to lead from the front and be the backbone of any team. To make matters worse, you have a better wicket-keeper batsman in Mohammad Rizwan waiting on the sidelines. I think the patience is wearing thin and it’s time for the PCB to take a long hard look at whether Sarfraz Should continue captaining the team with World Cup not too far away.
 
PCB knows Pakistan will lose 3-0 so they are basically going to make Sarfaraz job to this crushing series defeat. They will then ask Sarfaraz to step down and announce a new Test match captain.
 
His own performance has gone down and he hasnt produced the results even though his team his weak. So should be sacked from captaincy if we lose, but if we win no.

Though I am not sure who should be the next captain as I am not sold out on any other senior player being a better captain, I think they will be worse.

The 2 I would like to see captain are Fakhar and Saud Shakeel but one has played just 1 match and the other none and PCB would never make some newbie a captain..


Its really tough. I don't think changing Sarfraz will improve the results but may improve his own performance.
 
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He should have been sacked earlier but he will captain in South Africa and he will be sacked if we lose.
 
1st test gainst NZ was lost mainly because of Sarfraz. He just had to score 4 runs. Just had to play with straight bat and play an over more and we would have won the series. That was criminal.
 
Yes he should be sacked
Bring in Rizwan, make him captain WK in all formats ASAP
 
thats really not a good way to look at the captaincy decision

I don't think there is any captain who can save Pakistan from a series loss against SA. Even if Imran Khan was captaining this team...

If Safraz is a good leader who gets the best out of his team, he should stay captain. Otherwise remove him.

making the decision based solely on the result of a series is just about the worst way of making that decision
 
He will himself resign from test captaincy. I don't see him changing in ODI and T20 though and shouldn't be changed. He has been decent in LOIs
 
As far as I'm aware, we don't have any Tests between the South Africa series and the ODI World Cup anyway, so it's best to delay his sacking until after the WC just to maintain team confidence & harmony.
 
His test captaincy seems to be definitely at the end of his career. Taking all three format captaincy has definitely taken its toll on Sarfi. It may be best to take the test captaincy from him.
 
We look at our team and there is hardly any match winners bar Abbass and Yasir. The team as a whole has to share responsibility. Sarfaraz has been average as well. I think captaining all formats has taken its toll.
 
Pak will lose 3-0 = Sarfraz sacked
Pak will crash out of world cup in group stage = sarfraz sacked

By next year he will be removed as captain in 2 formats.
 
I got a feeling SA is gonna go well. Fakhar is the key player. Every1 else except the second opener is gonna be fine inshaAllah
 
Amjid Javed said:
Pak will lose 3-0 = Sarfraz sacked
Pak will crash out of world cup in group stage = sarfraz sacked

By next year he will be removed as captain in 2 formats.
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By WT20 2020 he will be sacked in all 3 formats, always a depressingly slow, lethargic transition and response from PCB.
 
Sarfaraz has past his prime , both as captain and as a player.

Pakistan should let Rizwan be WK and groom another youngster side by side.
 
He should be dropped for Rizwan in Test and Azhar/Aaad should be handed over the captaincy.
 
aukhan said:
These two losers will always do better than Sarfraz. Beggars can't be choosers.
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All three are rubbish, but Azhar and Shafiq have been instrumental in making sure we have been humiliated in every series since MisYou retired. Handing the captaincy to either one of these two, is something only a Pakistani fan with an agenda would think about

Pray tell, how long Azhar Ali lasted as an ODI captain before he was disgraced and thrown away like a used tissue paper? You lot just don't learn do you?
 
Usman Chadda said:
All three are rubbish, but Azhar and Shafiq have been instrumental in making sure we have been humiliated in every series since MisYou retired. Handing the captaincy to either one of these two, is something only a Pakistani fan with an agenda would think about

Pray tell, how long Azhar Ali lasted as an ODI captain before he was disgraced and thrown away like a used tissue paper? You lot just don't learn do you?
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Making Azhar ODI captain was a stupid decision so his failure was imminent. He was rightfully named as Test VC but PCB messed everything up as usual. Test is a different format where the captain has to be patient and not panic after every delivery. What we need in our Test team is a captain who could merit a place in the side so we have only 2 options left. Sarfraz in the last 2 years has contributed nothing. He costed us the series against Srilanka, Aus and NZ with his irresponsible attitude. His shot selection and BAD DECISIONS were the reason we lost.

The only agenda of Sarfraz premis and bakhts is to defend him blindly and that's what you and others will do. If we lose against SA then Sarfraz needs to go.
 
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aukhan said:
Making Azhar ODI captain was a stupid decision so his failure was imminent. He was rightfully named as Test VC but PCB messed everything up as usual. Test is a different format where the captain has to be patient and not panic after every delivery. What we need in our Test team is a captain who could merit a place in the side so we have only 2 options left. Sarfraz in the last 2 years has contributed nothing. He costed us the series against Srilanka, Aus and NZ with his irresponsible attitude. His shot selection and BAD DECISIONS were the reason we lost.

The only agenda of Sarfraz premis and bakhts is to defend him blindly and that's what you and others will do. If we lose against SA then Sarfraz needs to go.
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If you could understand cricket, you would realise Pakistan's BATTING has been at fault for throwing away winning situations and finding ways to lose matches. Happened against Sri Lanka, and now against New Zealand. The first Test against Australia where Khawaja played that fine knock was the only time Sarfraz mucked up to a large extent. Besides that he has had some brain-dead moments, but his bowlers and fields have responded to hand the match on a plate, only for the batsmen to soil themselves.

Azhar and Shafiq have played about 60 tests individually, and they are pretty much at the same level they were when they debuted. Capable of one or two good knocks, but zero match-defining innings. It's an embarrassment for us as a cricketing nation that we have a non-performing captain and we have two mentally fragile players as our best batsmen. They have been instrumental in not standing up when the going gets tough, and are guilty of leaving the job for either of Haris or Babar. Both have woeful averages since MisYou left. A change in captain won't make these two magically start performing, and in the case of making either of them captain, Allah hi haafiz hai phir toh.

I'm no Sarfraz bakht. I just don't believe Pakistan can do much besides destabilizing the already messed up environment of the team by changing the captain. If there were alternatives, I would take them in a heartbeat. Unfortunately most of you here don't really understand the root cause of the problems we are plagued with, and are adamant on expecting miracles happen with a change in personnell.
 
This is lowest point in Pakistan cricket history. Pakistan has lost in the past but at no point the selectors have shown so insensitivity on losing a match or a series, like their is no shame in losing . Defeat after defeat and same squad, same useless keeper and captain and same pathetic Bhanja in the team. Now Inzi is saying one more series for Bhanja, like Bhanja is more important than this very very important series against SA, shameful, really.
 
Usman Chadda said:
If you could understand cricket, you would realise Pakistan's BATTING has been at fault for throwing away winning situations and finding ways to lose matches. Happened against Sri Lanka, and now against New Zealand. The first Test against Australia where Khawaja played that fine knock was the only time Sarfraz mucked up to a large extent. Besides that he has had some brain-dead moments, but his bowlers and fields have responded to hand the match on a plate, only for the batsmen to soil themselves.

Azhar and Shafiq have played about 60 tests individually, and they are pretty much at the same level they were when they debuted. Capable of one or two good knocks, but zero match-defining innings. It's an embarrassment for us as a cricketing nation that we have a non-performing captain and we have two mentally fragile players as our best batsmen. They have been instrumental in not standing up when the going gets tough, and are guilty of leaving the job for either of Haris or Babar. Both have woeful averages since MisYou left. A change in captain won't make these two magically start performing, and in the case of making either of them captain, Allah hi haafiz hai phir toh.

I'm no Sarfraz bakht. I just don't believe Pakistan can do much besides destabilizing the already messed up environment of the team by changing the captain. If there were alternatives, I would take them in a heartbeat. Unfortunately most of you here don't really understand the root cause of the problems we are plagued with, and are adamant on expecting miracles happen with a change in personnell.
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The root causes won't change by continuing with the non performing captain. A performing captain is what many people like me wants to see. We are already losing everything why not lose with a captain who could perform decently and not become a liability.
 
aukhan said:
The root causes won't change by continuing with the non performing captain. A performing captain is what many people like me wants to see. We are already losing everything why not lose with a captain who could perform something instead of becoming a liability.
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Agree 100%.
 
moghul said:
This is lowest point in Pakistan cricket history. Pakistan has lost in the past but at no point the selectors have shown so insensitivity on losing a match or a series, like their is no shame in losing . Defeat after defeat and same squad, same useless keeper and captain and same pathetic Bhanja in the team. Now Inzi is saying one more series for Bhanja, like Bhanja is more important than this very very important series against SA, shameful, really.
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The problem here is why he keeps getting into the playing 11? Is captain playing bhatija in return of support? Why Saad Ali couldn't get a single game?
 
aukhan said:
The problem here is why he keeps getting into the playing 11? Is captain playing bhatija in return of support? Why Saad Ali couldn't get a single game?
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Exactly, this could very well be the understanding between Inzi and Sarfraz. As long as Sarfraz keeps playing Imam in playing 11, he will keep the captaincy and place in the team. No other explanation of this nonsense selection otherwise.
 
If Pakistanis , selectors and captain don't care about losing a match and series, I don't thing Micky, being not a Pakistani cares much about it either. He is getting his handsome payment, captain and the chief selector is happy so why would he care about losing or making a change in the team. I hoped this corruption in the Pakistan team affairs would improve with IK being the PM, not to be, just sad.
 
Depends on the performance, not just the scoreline. If we get thrashed and put up a pathetic performance, then yes. If we play well and he himself gives good performances, maybe stick with him.
 
Relieve him of this burden to see if performs better as a batsman, and if this horrendous form continues drop him from the team
 
Sarfraz should have got the boot before this tour and nothing has improved since. Hes still a passenger in side and not worth his side in merit.
 
Was never convinced by him after the NZ LO series. Should be sacked from ODIs and tests asap.
 
Hasan123 said:
Was never convinced by him after the NZ LO series. Should be sacked from ODIs and tests asap.
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He is going nowhere before the world cup as far as the ODI's are concerned.All we can hope for is that he doesn't replicate his awful test form into the limited overs.Can't afford a non performing captain before the tournament!
 
Fineline said:
He is going nowhere before the world cup as far as the ODI's are concerned.All we can hope for is that he doesn't replicate his awful test form into the limited overs.Can't afford a non performing captain before the tournament!
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His crouching is getting lower and lower. Also the games come thick and fast in this WC format. Not expecting much from a side led by him at the WC. If he can keep us competitive at least , I won't complain too much. But if we are beaten black and blue he must be sacked.

I would sack him now. We won't win the WC whoever is captain but with Sarfraz we will be embrassed.
 
Hasan123 said:
His crouching is getting lower and lower. Also the games come thick and fast in this WC format. Not expecting much from a side led by him at the WC. If he can keep us competitive at least , I won't complain too much. But if we are beaten black and blue he must be sacked.

I would sack him now. We won't win the WC whoever is captain but with Sarfraz we will be embrassed.
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Do you think Ehsan Mani would sack him if we fail to put a good show against South Africa in the ODI series?The chances of that happening seem slim to me.
 
Hasan123 said:
His crouching is getting lower and lower. Also the games come thick and fast in this WC format. Not expecting much from a side led by him at the WC. If he can keep us competitive at least , I won't complain too much. But if we are beaten black and blue he must be sacked.

I would sack him now. We won't win the WC whoever is captain but with Sarfraz we will be embrassed.
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Crouches too low then jumps up to defend chest high balls. Ripe for an edge or glove behind. Flays at wide balls and premeditates every shot. Doesn’t have temperament to knuckle down and defend for periods when the bowlers tails are up. Is a walking wicket I don’t know whether to laugh or cry that he is the captain and batting in the middle order. No11 is too high a spot for him.
 
No. I think its time to move on. Its not like as we have any more to loose. Lets try some new faces
 
Fineline said:
Do you think Ehsan Mani would sack him if we fail to put a good show against South Africa in the ODI series?The chances of that happening seem slim to me.
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If his own performance is good and we lose he will stay as captain. If he doesn't perform and we lose he could be sacked. With the PCB anything is possible.
 
Realistically speaking, dont think the pcb will axe him immediately
 
Fineline said:
He is going nowhere before the world cup as far as the ODI's are concerned.All we can hope for is that he doesn't replicate his awful test form into the limited overs.Can't afford a non performing captain before the tournament!
Click to expand...

World cup is in England. His crouching will make him look like nothing more than a tailender especially after he gained weight. He is not going to add anything significantly other than shouting at young players.
 
Savak said:
Realistically speaking, dont think the pcb will axe him immediately
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If PCB makes no drastic changes then it will definitely hurt fans like me. If there is no accountability for poor performances like this than why follow Pak cricket and waste our time?
 
I hope Sarfaraz shows the ghairat and character to step down as captain knowing the mood in the country on his leadership. It baffles me why Pakistani players insist on captaining knowing full well they are not looked upon favorably, will it kill him to resign as captain and say I wish to focus on my performances as a player alone. Hafeez did it asap.
 
Lucky win in CT '17 extended his reign as the captain for another 20 months, otherwise he should have been sacked even before that.
 
The captaincy has mentally wrecked him.

I hope they keep Mickey Arthur on, because if Shan Masood takes over the Test captaincy they can replace Sarfraz with Rizwan and play him, Shadab and Faheem in Australia in eleven months.

My team for Australia would probably look something like this......

(Bear in mind, I believe in retiring one veteran per year, so Azhar goes and Shafiq stays for a year).

1. Shan Masood (c)
2. Haris Sohail
3. Asad Shafiq
4. Babar Azam
5. Mohammad Rizwan (wk)
6. Umar Akmal
7. Shadab Khan
8. Faheem Ashraf
9. Mohammad Amir
10. Shaheen Shah Afridi
11. Mohammad Abbas

One of the two Tests is the Pink Ball Day Nighter at Adelaide, for those conditions possibly Hasan Ali would replace Shaheen Shah Afridi.
 
He's literally living off that CT win, that was one of those unique circumstances that will not be replicated. Obviously the PCB has not helped by scheduling a bunch of ODI's/T20's against very poor sides which gave him the aura of success that was skin-deep. We've been consistently exposed when coming up against decent sides. Sarfaraz has to go as captain, but potentially stay in the side and start posting good scores again with the bat.
 
Why does Sarfaraz not have the gheirat to step down as captain?

He is being criticized from all corners, even TV channels which used to back him heavily at one point in time are now struggling to find excuses to back him.

Even putting his non existent, in consistent batting performances aside, based on what I have seen in 2 years, he has never learnt from his captaincy mistakes, his habit of shouting at the players during pressure moments ends up putting more pressure on the team, his poor body language when things are not going to plan fails to lift the team, he goes on the defensive very easily, does not put in a slip for new batsmen at the cease and he himself has admitted that at times he can't deal with the pressures of caotaincy of the field.

Overall to sum up, there is not much to show for ten years of captaincy experience from U19 team, domestic team and the national team barring that CT 2017 win, he cannot live off that forever and sadly speaking that win is a distant memory now.

He knows what the mood in the country is right now. For starters what Pakistan needs from its captain is to have a certain position in the team but who that is a different debate.

Would Sarfaraz not like the opportunity to play freely as a player focusing on his own game as a batsman and keeper? Wonder why he insists on remaining the captain and not stepping down like Hafeez did? There were reports that even Mickey Arthur has now lost patience with him and had recommended the PCB to remove him as much as he backs him in public for now.
 
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No need to announce any new captain as we wont be playing any tests before WC. Its better to see what the team's makeup is after the WC and then decide who should be the captain.
 
Slim said:
No need to announce any new captain as we wont be playing any tests before WC. Its better to see what the team's makeup is after the WC and then decide who should be the captain.
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The problem is that sometimes you have to drop your Captain,

Pakistan were a laughing stock here in Australia two years ago when they made the comical decision NOT to drop Misbah-ul-Haq for the Sydney Test. His batting was predictably bad, but he was so mentally wiped out that he opened the bowling with Yasir Shah!

The same is true now. Picking Mohammad Rizwan instead of Sarfraz could enable Shadab and Faheem to come in - the retention of Sarfraz at Johannesburg would be absolute madness.
 
Junaids said:
The problem is that sometimes you have to drop your Captain,

Pakistan were a laughing stock here in Australia two years ago when they made the comical decision NOT to drop Misbah-ul-Haq for the Sydney Test. His batting was predictably bad, but he was so mentally wiped out that he opened the bowling with Yasir Shah!

The same is true now. Picking Mohammad Rizwan instead of Sarfraz could enable Shadab and Faheem to come in - the retention of Sarfraz at Johannesburg would be absolute madness.
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That would ruin the team's mentality for the WC. The SA series is a lost cause.
 
Slim said:
That would ruin the team's mentality for the WC. The SA series is a lost cause.
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I’m a psychiatrist and I feel the opposite.

The players need to feel confident in their team-mates.

They can see that Sarfraz is 10% of his normal self currently. They can see that he is dragging them down.

If Virat Kohli was batting this way and not improving in the nets I’d expect him to be dropped too.

The skipper is never too big to be dropped.

It doesn’t mean forfeiting the captaincy. It’s the act of a true leader to step aside until he can perform.

I think this gets lost in Pakistan because people tolerated Misbah as a non-playing captain who failed in:

5 out of 6 innings in South Africa in 2012-13.

8 out of 8 innings in Australia and New Zealand in 2016-17.

But you can’t be the captain unless you’re in the team. That can’t ever be twisted into “you’re in the team because you’re the captain”.
 
Junaids said:
I’m a psychiatrist and I feel the opposite.

The players need to feel confident in their team-mates.

They can see that Sarfraz is 10% of his normal self currently. They can see that he is dragging them down.

If Virat Kohli was batting this way and not improving in the nets I’d expect him to be dropped too.

The skipper is never too big to be dropped.

It doesn’t mean forfeiting the captaincy. It’s the act of a true leader to step aside until he can perform.

I think this gets lost in Pakistan because people tolerated Misbah as a non-playing captain who failed in:

5 out of 6 innings in South Africa in 2012-13.

8 out of 8 innings in Australia and New Zealand in 2016-17.

But you can’t be the captain unless you’re in the team. That can’t ever be twisted into “you’re in the team because you’re the captain”.
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Wouldnt removing Sarfraz create chaos in the team's atmosphere?
 
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