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Should Sarfaraz Ahmed resign as the Pakistan ODI skipper?

Should Sarfaraz Ahmed resign as the Pakistan ODI skipper?


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Malik is not interested.

Babar's place in the team will be under pressure soon, if he continues to flounder against top opposition (which he'll face plenty till the WC).

Fakhar just had one of the biggest meltdowns ever seen in Pakistan cricket.

So, where do we stand?


Babar is PCB golden boy he won't be dropped. And I back him to come good . I don't have a problem with him being made captain.

I would only want Malik till WC, nothing long term.

Don't see Fakahr getting it tbh.

Where we stand is , we need a change of leadership. We may not get the first choice right but that is no reason to stick with this cricketer ads skipper.
 
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Who said Malik is not interested? Same point was mentioned last year for Amir.
Categorically stated from reliable sources in the media. Infact Malik is getting bashed aplenty for his non-existent interaction on the field with Sarfraz, as a senior player.

However, this is Pakistan cricket. A mediocre cricketer like Afridi can take back retirements like he's some sort of legend, so Malik taking up captaincy looks quite tame in comparison.
 
You need to drop Sarfraz and get Rizwan in.i am pretty sure he would be a better keeper and would be no worse than Sarfi in batting.And then make Malik or Babar as your captain. You cant have a bloke who is so mediocre as your captain.
 
You need to drop Sarfraz and get Rizwan in.i am pretty sure he would be a better keeper and would be no worse than Sarfi in batting.And then make Malik or Babar as your captain. You cant have a bloke who is so mediocre as your captain.
You haven't seen Rizwan bat. Another Mohammad Nawaz-type batsman.
 
Categorically stated from reliable sources in the media. Infact Malik is getting bashed aplenty for his non-existent interaction on the field with Sarfraz, as a senior player.

However, this is Pakistan cricket. A mediocre cricketer like Afridi can take back retirements like he's some sort of legend, so Malik taking up captaincy looks quite tame in comparison.

Malik was NEVER disinterested in Captaincy - in that case he won't have Captained so many teams.

Maliks are the richest cricket family in PAK including his wife's earning, at the last end of his career and they are a happily married, settled couple - he just wants a peaceful life without indulging in cricket politics, which cost him few years of career. Being captain means he'll have to sacrifice lots of company of his pro sport woman wife - that too for a cause which might end in tears.

I saw Malik Captaining first time & he was the most engaged Captain of PAK since Akram - in between you had captains like Waquar, Latif, Ul Haq & YK. A little understanding of personality trait should differentiate them from Malik. He was at the right age, was quite intelligent and he was already Captain of domestic teams. Most importantly, his team was delivering - was one shot away of winning a WC against IND - for similar something, you guys have made an at best average cricketer parallel to Imran.

But, his first tenure ended in tears - partially for his incompetence, and mostly for PCB. Incompetence is that he was never good enough to lead Test side - Dr. Ashraf didn't realize that and forced it upon him, when there were 7-8 egoistic seniors who knew that Malik can't run the Test team without them. PCB's fault was that they appointed a young Captain, but didn't back him - result was division in team; seniors went after him, he also found few friends to ring fence him. Dr. Ashraf left suddenly and Malik faced the ultimate insult of being sacked, subsequently dropped from team when his stats were still outstanding (Late 00s, he had an ODI stat like 35+/80+ with bat & <35/<4.5 with ball for over 150 games - it's like gold standard for a career in 2000s decade).

Coming to his second come back - he is enjoying the game, performing as well. But, he still has the scar of his 1st tenure, which cost him 3-4 years of career - just doesn't want to call trouble again - once beaten, twice shy.

He'll DEFINITELY take the Captaincy, if it's given to him with proper authority - authority not like Kohli, but Malik doesn't need that either. What he needs is assurance from PCB/Management that he is the Captain for the right purpose & dignity. Also, Malik has another experience - this small town guy had always been bullied by hunks from Big 2-3 cites; he knows that if he replaces Karachi's pride aka Sarfraz Ahmed, entire South PAK will be hunting him. Leading a poor team is the toughest job for a batting Captain, add to that media mockery .... he is too comfortable & stable now to bear that pain.

He left KK Captaincy from a similar situation (KK also had 3-4 captains to explain the environment there), but did lead the Multan team - it's not that he isn't interested for Captaincy. He doesn't indulge in team tactics in recent times because Sarfraz isn't comfortable to bring someone better than him in his job - being the best fielder in team Malik often fields at boundary line, when he should have been Sarfraz's 1st go to guy, fielding closest to him. Don't tell me that it's Malik who asks Sarfraz to place him at 3rd man, so that he can relax there!!!!

A 10 minutes chat between Ehsan Mani, Malik & Arthur is more than enough to convince him if they guarantee him in proper spirit, that his way or highway, as long as his calls are fair. Malik makes the team on merit, one of the fittest guy around & he knows how to lead a side - what else do you need?
 
Malik was NEVER disinterested in Captaincy - in that case he won't have Captained so many teams.

Maliks are the richest cricket family in PAK including his wife's earning, at the last end of his career and they are a happily married, settled couple - he just wants a peaceful life without indulging in cricket politics, which cost him few years of career. Being captain means he'll have to sacrifice lots of company of his pro sport woman wife - that too for a cause which might end in tears.

I saw Malik Captaining first time & he was the most engaged Captain of PAK since Akram - in between you had captains like Waquar, Latif, Ul Haq & YK. A little understanding of personality trait should differentiate them from Malik. He was at the right age, was quite intelligent and he was already Captain of domestic teams. Most importantly, his team was delivering - was one shot away of winning a WC against IND - for similar something, you guys have made an at best average cricketer parallel to Imran.

But, his first tenure ended in tears - partially for his incompetence, and mostly for PCB. Incompetence is that he was never good enough to lead Test side - Dr. Ashraf didn't realize that and forced it upon him, when there were 7-8 egoistic seniors who knew that Malik can't run the Test team without them. PCB's fault was that they appointed a young Captain, but didn't back him - result was division in team; seniors went after him, he also found few friends to ring fence him. Dr. Ashraf left suddenly and Malik faced the ultimate insult of being sacked, subsequently dropped from team when his stats were still outstanding (Late 00s, he had an ODI stat like 35+/80+ with bat & <35/<4.5 with ball for over 150 games - it's like gold standard for a career in 2000s decade).

Coming to his second come back - he is enjoying the game, performing as well. But, he still has the scar of his 1st tenure, which cost him 3-4 years of career - just doesn't want to call trouble again - once beaten, twice shy.

He'll DEFINITELY take the Captaincy, if it's given to him with proper authority - authority not like Kohli, but Malik doesn't need that either. What he needs is assurance from PCB/Management that he is the Captain for the right purpose & dignity. Also, Malik has another experience - this small town guy had always been bullied by hunks from Big 2-3 cites; he knows that if he replaces Karachi's pride aka Sarfraz Ahmed, entire South PAK will be hunting him. Leading a poor team is the toughest job for a batting Captain, add to that media mockery .... he is too comfortable & stable now to bear that pain.

He left KK Captaincy from a similar situation (KK also had 3-4 captains to explain the environment there), but did lead the Multan team - it's not that he isn't interested for Captaincy. He doesn't indulge in team tactics in recent times because Sarfraz isn't comfortable to bring someone better than him in his job - being the best fielder in team Malik often fields at boundary line, when he should have been Sarfraz's 1st go to guy, fielding closest to him. Don't tell me that it's Malik who asks Sarfraz to place him at 3rd man, so that he can relax there!!!!

A 10 minutes chat between Ehsan Mani, Malik & Arthur is more than enough to convince him if they guarantee him in proper spirit, that his way or highway, as long as his calls are fair. Malik makes the team on merit, one of the fittest guy around & he knows how to lead a side - what else do you need?
As I said, despite the reports, Malik can take up the captaincy since this is Pakistan cricket after all. The part about a 10 minute chat isn’t far off and might actually happen if Pakistan ends up humiliating itself further in the next two series against NZ and Australia.

However, jog back your memory to the NZ series in January, and you’ll realize why Malik will not be named captain any time soon. His place in the side was under scrutiny, after a few poor returns and the fact that he was looking like an absolute tail-ender against the vicious bounce Lockie Ferguson and Trent Boult were generating. He was bashed ruthlessly on TV for being a coward against good fast bowling. Hell, Pakistan fans here were breathing a sigh of relief that Malik got injured in the ODI series and won’t be around for the T20I series :facepalm:

The situation is bad, really bad. The only hope is this average cricketer (Sarfraz) pulls up his socks and somehow manages to rediscover the 2014-15 form.
 
No...not at all. Pakistan is still a very good team and Sarfraz deserves a shot at world cup after CT Win. I know we all laughed at your team (courtesy arrogant Pak fans) but the reality is 1 tournament in UAE dont matter at all in bigger scheme of things. Back your team pls.
 
We were missing a dynamic game plan and a killer instinct. Sarfaraz's captaincy has been scrutinized heavily which is fair since he made some awful decisions during the match. But sacking him is wrong, he can learn from this as his first real embarrassment (We were still on the high of CT win to care about performance in NZ series so didn't really count and other contextual forces were at play). In our own "backyard" being humiliated by India twice, losing to BD and nearly losing to Afghanistan is going to require examining into what happened and I trust Mickey to sit down with Sarfaraz and go into detail about what happened on the field. Not going for the kill when BD were 15-3 or simply allowing India to rotate strike with such ease will be fixed for the upcoming series.

This "not going for the kill" can be explained by the lack of cricket against big teams since normally against minnows, the players' ability is a lot better than minnows so you can just rely on ability and minnows making mistakes rather than using an articulate plan to win the game which is needed in big games. I also think he is hampered by the lack of "advisors" in the field who he can trust with making decisions as every catqin has players who they go to for advice on decisions.

However, Sarfaraz is still the right man for the job because there is no better alternative. It was the incompetence and arrogance of management and squad that led to this failure but Sarfaraz is the man, only last year were we praising his agressive captaincy and the way the team played with their heart on their sleeve. The potential alternatives are:

Malik - Has become everyone's favourite which is interesting considering people were calling for him and Hafeez to be kicked out because they were taking up spots that deserved to be filled by youngsters not too long ago. All of sudden people realised how important experience is to a young side. Just shows how quickly people can change their opinion. Personally, whilst I think he would be a great fit, we can't be appointing a 36 year old as a new captain and I think he will retire after the 2019 World Cup (He may continue T20Is but not ODIs)

Amir - Was the favourite last year, again how opinions change so quickly. Is now fighting for his place in the XI and why award someone who half the time looks like he doesn't care. His tainted past doesn't help him either.

Babar - Good player with potential, but doesn't look like captaincy-material based on his demeanour in the field and will be too much of a burden.

Fakhar - Similar to Babar but seemingly lacks a cricket brain

Hasan/Shadab - Again similar cases to Babar and Fakhar, too young and raw and we don't know how they would act with this responsibility and the effect it could have on their performances.

Imam - Even though he has many critics and some PPers simply don't like him for being in the side, I like the way he fought in the BD game, seems quite cricket smart and I admired the way he was calming down Asif Ali in between overs despite being younger than him and he was counting the runs per over by the ball and informing Asif which was a smart thing to do. This was followed by the frustration he felt after Asif was stumped and it looked like he was crying after he was out which shows he wears his heart on his sleeve. But he is too raw, hasn't properly proven himself in big games and as long Inzi is CS, he cannot be captain due to nepotism accusations. Wouldn't mind seeing him, Malik and another young player to become "advisors" to Sarfaraz to support him and learn from him.

Hafeez/Azhar - Just no

Everyone else is simply not captaincy-material in the slighest so I am shocked at this 50/50 split on whether Sarfaraz should resign as PCT would be in a worse state than what it is right now. This shouldn't be a question but our fans are too emotional and we don't look at the bigger picture.
 
How does the notion that Sarfraz is not doing well somehow equate to people wanting a captain like Misbah?

You talked about the team improving (or a lack thereof), and I asked you a question.

Either answer it or don't answer it.
 
No...not at all. Pakistan is still a very good team and Sarfraz deserves a shot at world cup after CT Win. I know we all laughed at your team (courtesy arrogant Pak fans) but the reality is 1 tournament in UAE dont matter at all in bigger scheme of things. Back your team pls.

You know things are bad when Indian and Bangladeshi fans are teaching you how it's done.

Sad state of affairs at the moment.

I do agree with the post, though.
 
Hate the dishonesty of some people who change the captain every second month. First they said Imad Wasim, then Umar Amin, than Amir, than Fakhar and now Malik.

I dont recall a single one of them saying Malik should be captain after CT and his failure against pace rather they called for his removal. They will be the first one to ridicule Malik when he will be a failure against pace (in all likelihood) in world cup and say that Pakistan made a mistake playing Malik considering his game against pace.

I call these people with no deen imaan, just changing their opinions with the flow so that they can score points later on how they were right and get appreciation of the masses. Sometimes our egos get the better of us and in these people, quite often.
 
On the other side i respect the opinions of those who can be 180 degree opposite to mine but at least are consistent in their views and try to provide some alternates too or get to the root of problem.
 
I'm uncomfortable with Sarfaraz continually pushing himself up the batting order despite being in horrible form. It's almost as if he thinks he is some sort of saviour of the batting and can carry the team to victory.

Sri Lanka at the Champions Trophy doesn't happen every day Sarfaraz Bhai.

Hes batting in top 6 positions in ODIs and in Test and in both cases his game is simply not good enough to do so, nor can our weak batting in general carry such a Anchor on an already sinking ship.

He needs to be dropped, as question as always would he get into side on merit alone? Answer is NO.
 
Not yet I don't think with the world cup in a few months, should aim to perform there otherwise it will be out of his hands and captaincy will probably be taken away from him.
 
As a neutral , I think the ODI team of Pakistan is way better now than what it was under Misbah. Not that it has much to do with the captaincy mind you but I do believe the players are not only better but have a higher ceiling for sure. Under Misbah 's captaincy, hafeez was your best ODI batsman and Misbah 2nd best and that says it all really. You can talk about ODI series wins in India and SA but those were relatively inconsequential 3 match series in these countries and Misbah had absolutely nothing to do with it. You just found 2 good quick bowlers in Junaid and Irfan for a year or so . Misbah also had the services of Ajmal and Hafeez to restrict the run scoring in ODI cricket. But apart from those two wins, top teams were destroying PaK in the UAE - England, SA,AUS, NZ all won ODI series with ease. CT 2013 resulted in losses to IND,SAF and WI and let's not forget the World Cup 2015 where PAK, apart from a close match against SA, were comfortably beaten by India/WI/OZ. Remove ajmal and hafeez from that era and PAK wouldn't even have won ODI series in West Indies 2011. The only difference is that as flawed as Misbah was , he was making that not so good side on merit as the 2nd best batsman on merit whereas in this team - arguably the worst performer is the captain. Short term I think Malik should be captain but long term give it to Babar or Hasan or one of the youngsters.
 
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Thanks.

How (in what areas) was the Misbah/Azhar XI better than the Sarfraz XI?

Genuine question.


No improvement does not imply that this team has gone backwards compared to where it was a few years ago.

This team is better and worse in different areas compared to the previous ODI teams, so the net result is pretty much zero. There has been no improvement - we were a mediocre, minnow bashing team 5 years ago and we are a mediocre minnow bashing team today.

Our batsmen cannot rotate strike, they lack the composure to build innings and chase totals, the fast bowlers lack discipline and the fielding is inconsistent. These have been our major problems over the last few years and we are still suffering from these problems.

This team is relatively better at power hitting because of the inclusion of a couple of good strikers like Fakhar and Asif, but that has been offset by the fact that the quality of our spin bowling has regressed alarmingly.

Shadab and Nawaz are mediocre spinners who are nowhere near the caliber of Ajmal, Hafeez and Afridi - yes the former two were chuckers, but that is not relevant to the point that I am making here.

Overall, this team has not made any progress. It still loses to the top teams more often than not and specializes in giving its delusional fan base false hopes by bashing minnows and weak teams, before the inevitable reality check that we get every few months.

If this team would have actually improved, it would not have been destroyed in New Zealand and in the Asia Cup, the only challenging ODI series post Champions Trophy. So what improving are we looking at?
 
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He needs to either improve as a batsman or resign as skipper. This is not the 90's anymore when a wicket keepers job was only to keep wickets.
 
He was of course the skipper for the successful CHampions Trophy, but after the debacle of the Asia Cup should he resign as ODI skipper?

Yes ofcourse! Remove the captain that has won you the only trophy this decade, and change it with who? Azhar Ali? Who you vociferously campaigned for in his tenure...
 
Yes ofcourse! Remove the captain that has won you the only trophy this decade, and change it with who? Azhar Ali? Who you vociferously campaigned for in his tenure...

That thing at the end of the thread title is a question mark. I am sure you know what a question mark means.
 
To be fair, Sarfaraz did not even give the impression of a guy who has been captaining teams for 12 years from U-19 to domestic sides. If you can't really develop your decision making skills and ability to read the game intelligently in 12 years, what are the chances you are going to do it in your 30's now?
 
I WAS in the camp that wants him gone, especially after he removed a slip for Hasan Ali and it went for 4, but after seeing him own up to his mistakes and saying its all his fault, its a little encouraging. I remember after Azhar Ali's disastrous tenure, he would always have some ** excuse (boys were tired, it was a close game, umpiring decisions etc etc)
 
I can only see Amir replacing Sarfraz tbh. Yes his performances have not been good of late but he is the only person who can handle the media and is mature enough in decision making. Pakistan has not had a bowling captain since the days of Wasim and Waqar, this could be a huge advantage for us since it would relieve one of our batsman from extra pressure.
 
End of Sarfaraz Ahmed?

Sarfaraz failed again while batting when the team needed him. It is almost confirmed that he will not perform well. I cannot remember more than one good limited overs innings for him since the CT 2017.

Do you guys think he should be removed from ODI captaincy after this series, and have a young guy replace him? Or let him be till the 2019 world cup. :baI personally believe it will be impossible to win CW with Sarfaraz at the helm. I think we should let him go and promote Babar, Imam etc.

What do you guys think?

:ba:ba
 
he was turning out to be a decent bat before he got captaincy... him and malik chased down 300 odd in england versus england, something which we had never done before..

ever since that 61* against sri lanka (where he was dropped multiple times) he hasn't done anything.

i guess from 2013ish to 2016ish he had his purple patch....
 
I think people need to wake up and realise that WC is around the corner and you cannot sack your captain, our nation has a habit making a farce out of everything eapecially politics and cricket!
So kindly stop creating such kind of threads and instead of these lame criticism supported by delusional ideas try supporting your team!
By being delusional, its the amazing suggestions I am talking about, like I read a comment during test series that Sarfraz should sacked and Fawad Alam should be should be named captain and thats a total facepalm moment, I mean the guy is not even the captain of his club/region?!. So please once again stop making a joke out of yourself and get real... PEACE!
 
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It was a selfless innings. He wanted Shadab to get some runs under his belt and finish the game.
 
He's gonna be captaining us in the World Cup 2019 regardless of what happens
 
People loke me like or not but Hafeez is best option for ODi captaincy.

I am glad that the myth, that he doesn't make the team on batting merit, has been busted. However, it is too late now.
 
People loke me like or not but Hafeez is best option for ODi captaincy.

that was the plan initially, but hafeez couldn't handle the pressure of t20 captaincy... there was no way he'd be a viable candidate for odis.
 
I think people need to wake up and realise that WC is around the corner and you cannot sack your captain, our nation has a habit making a farce out of everything eapecially politics and cricket!
So kindly stop creating such kind of threads and instead of these lame criticism supported by delusional ideas try supporting your team!
By being delusional, its the amazing suggestions I am talking about, like I read a comment during test series that Sarfraz should sacked and Fawad Alam should be should be named captain and thats a total facepalm moment, I mean the guy is not even the captain of his club/region?!. So please once again stop making a joke out of yourself and get real... PEACE!

agreed, but sarfraz weakens an already weak batting team
 
akmalfamilyfan (Akmal Family Fan) wants Sarfaraz sacked so his family man Babar Azam can be made captain. Well our team won CT under his captaincy and we are a number one T20 side since long. I hope he proves all his haters wrong. IA
 
Can’t believe he still has supporters. Khuda ka khouf karo yaar, kiya muun dikhao gey Allah ko.
 
People have such bad memories. He’s solely responsible for winning us ct2017 trophy, got a win against england in England. He’s the only captain that keeps and plays all three formats which obviously takes a toll. People also forget that Sarfaraz has players with limited abilities in his teams unlike other teams that have good players who can win matches by themselves. Who does Sarfaraz have ?
 
I think it is a problem for him in any format if Rizwan is ready for international cricket and simply not getting a chance because Sarf is skipper. I have not seen enough of Rizwan to know whether he is ready, but if he can deliver more consistently with the bat than Sarf then it is difficult to keep him out for too long.
 
If he can win a 5 match series in SA, that would prove he isn’t a fluke ODI captain at least
 
Even Afridi was better and more consistent than him. Im sorry i bashed afridi so much over the years. Sarfraz's incompetence has opened by eyes.
 
If he can win a 5 match series in SA, that would prove he isn’t a fluke ODI captain at least

Yes, 1 voted 4-1 to pakistan, but it is hard to win in Af. Although there is chance to win in 2 match especially when we look the matches that played at that place.
 
Just hand over the captaincy to Babar after the World Cup. It's not like he'll be the only player to become the captain at the age of 24. A lot of other players have become the captain of the team at the same age, some even younger. And a lot of them have succeeded as well.

There's simply no point in persisting with a captain who is not good enough to sustain his place in the team as a player.
 
Irrespective of Sarfaraz is captain or not, i will like to point out one thing here and that is the little improvement in ODI team shouldnt only be attributable to Sarfaraz and Mickey.

To me PSL played a huge role in this success and it produced players like Hassan Ali who the man of the tournument in CT17, Fakhar Zaman who was man of the match in the final, Shaheen Shah who won man of the series against NZ, Shadab Khan etc.

My point is whatever improvement there is its due to better players. I am sure if Misbah and other coaches had these players results could have been a lot more different for him as well. Not a fan of Misbah’s LOI captaincy but just stating facts.

ISB united winning the two editions of PSL under Misbah proves the point that it wasnt only the captaincy but the quality of players which was the cause of problem. And now whatever blunders Mickey or Sarfaraz make can be hidden by individual quality.

This was the squad which Misbah captained in WC 15

Ahmed Shehzad, Ehsan Adil, Haris Sohail, Junaid Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Shahid Afridi, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohail Khan, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah, Younus Khan.

Now compare it with current squad and what do you guys think Sarfaraz and Mickey would have extracted from the above squad? :ba
 
Irrespective of Sarfaraz is captain or not, i will like to point out one thing here and that is the little improvement in ODI team shouldnt only be attributable to Sarfaraz and Mickey.

To me PSL played a huge role in this success and it produced players like Hassan Ali who the man of the tournument in CT17, Fakhar Zaman who was man of the match in the final, Shaheen Shah who won man of the series against NZ, Shadab Khan etc.

My point is whatever improvement there is its due to better players. I am sure if Misbah and other coaches had these players results could have been a lot more different for him as well. Not a fan of Misbah’s LOI captaincy but just stating facts.

ISB united winning the two editions of PSL under Misbah proves the point that it wasnt only the captaincy but the quality of players which was the cause of problem. And now whatever blunders Mickey or Sarfaraz make can be hidden by individual quality.

This was the squad which Misbah captained in WC 15

Ahmed Shehzad, Ehsan Adil, Haris Sohail, Junaid Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Shahid Afridi, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohail Khan, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah, Younus Khan.

Now compare it with current squad and what do you guys think Sarfaraz and Mickey would have extracted from the above squad? :ba

Misbah just didnt even try to play the modern game. Hafeez for instance playing better since Misbah retired as his got more freedom now.
 
Just hand over the captaincy to Babar after the World Cup. It's not like he'll be the only player to become the captain at the age of 24. A lot of other players have become the captain of the team at the same age, some even younger. And a lot of them have succeeded as well.

There's simply no point in persisting with a captain who is not good enough to sustain his place in the team as a player.

Sarfraz will most probably be too old for the next WC. So they should groom babar to take over the captaincy with a view of taking over anytime after the WC and definitely after the next T20 WC.
 
Unless his individual form takes a nose dive (his batting stats are at 23-25 average level as Captain😩, I am talking about his keeping), I don’t think PCB will replace him before WC - therefore, I think time to support him, at least not make things even worse. He must be aware of what PAK fans are writing in PP or FB or Twitter or other such forums. I have been a strong critic of him (more than personal, I don’t like the idea of WK Captains and to make someone like Sarfraz Captain for 3 formats is beyond foolish, even for PCB’s standard), but it’s time to live with him & expect things to turn better.

However, I think we might see a change in PCB’s approach for WC in this regard. Ehsan Mani has joined at a time probably too close to WC for him to make some hard calls - a change in leadership doesn’t ensure success with this team, but Mani’ll have to bear the maximum repercussions in that case. Also, as I mentioned in other thread - IK became PAK PM, one of the surprising contribution was from Karachi, which was critical & he would try to ensure as much as possible not to rile up Karachi voters. Therefore, along with cricket reasons, I tend to believe backing Sarfraz unconditionally is a political call as well. However, they might appoint one senior guy as stop gap deputy (most likely Hafeez, or Malik) for WC, pick a backup WK (most likely Rizwan, outside chance is Umar), and if Sarfraz hits rock bottom with performance & confidence (as Captain), during WC, he might get “injured” but stay with the squad as non playing captain - this can cover both ends & I do belive Sarfraz is an honest soul, he won’t make things worse in that arrangement. I believe, SRL did something similar with Malinga (2014 WC?) and it brought result.

These days, WKs role is not much more than a 1st baseman, therefore keeping wise, he is covered. BUT, that actually is a bigger problem for a non performing (with bat) WK - since, requirements for glove works have reduced, more & more WKs are expected to contribute with bat. For batting, Sarfraz himself isn’t helping his cause by picking wrong spot to bat - Saturday’s game was a perfect example of that. Ideally, he should have come at 4 and make some soft run to settle the nerves, or don’t come at all - PAK had enough depth at that point for him to drop down. It’s great for him that Amla & Hafeez made sure PAK didn’t lose the game, but had PAK lost that game after Sarfraz making it 225/5, there would have been mayhems in PAK social media, which is not good for a team 5 months before WC and will definitely force Mani to take some desperate calls (may be “rest” Sarfraz & give Rizwan couple of games, which at this point will be disastrous for Sarfraz’s confidence).
 
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All these different polls about should Sarfarz resign from captaincy.

He shouldnt be in either the Test or ODI starting X1s never mind being captain.
 
People have such bad memories. He’s solely responsible for winning us ct2017 trophy, got a win against england in England. He’s the only captain that keeps and plays all three formats which obviously takes a toll. People also forget that Sarfaraz has players with limited abilities in his teams unlike other teams that have good players who can win matches by themselves. Who does Sarfaraz have ?

This excuse has gone really old. No offence but Sarfraz captaincy career is nothing but a list of excuses. I have never seen such mediocre leader captaining us before. He has such a low character that he will throw his own team mates under the bus to take criticism away from his pathetic captaincy. This has never been heard in Pakistan history before.

I knew how selfish he was when he was furious at Umar Akmal for hitting the consecutive boundaries to finish the match when he wanted his hundred.
 
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All these different polls about should Sarfarz resign from captaincy.

He shouldnt be in either the Test or ODI starting X1s never mind being captain.

This guy loves to take credit of others hard work. You will see mini YK in him but at least YK had class to perform as a player. This guy is all about me me when Pak does well and when Pakistan loses badly he spares no one for his blames..
 
If sarfraz n hafeez continues to play the way like they did in 1st odi..I will not be surprised if hafeez named captain for the next series with Rizwan as keeper.
 
Sarfraz is warming the bench for Babar. For some reason I think Malik is somehow involved in this decision and might have advised PCB to keep Sarfi as captain until atleast the WC based on his own experiences. ALso, Arthur might want Babar to continue to flourish as a batsman before burdening him with captaincy. I see a status quo until the WC and things will change rapidly after the WC
 
People have such bad memories. He’s solely responsible for winning us ct2017 trophy, got a win against england in England. He’s the only captain that keeps and plays all three formats which obviously takes a toll. People also forget that Sarfaraz has players with limited abilities in his teams unlike other teams that have good players who can win matches by themselves. Who does Sarfaraz have ?

Solely responsible??

What about Hassan Ali who got man of the tournament, what about performances of Fakhar and Amir in the final?
 
If sarfraz n hafeez continues to play the way like they did in 1st odi..I will not be surprised if hafeez named captain for the next series with Rizwan as keeper.

Hafeez should have been the natural choice of captain after Misbah and it was also the plan i guess but Haffeez made an emotional call of giving up the captaincy after T20 world cup and then we had to face some years with Azhar's captaincy.
 
Solely responsible??

What about Hassan Ali who got man of the tournament, what about performances of Fakhar and Amir in the final?

That was actually Sarfraz ghost who was bowling those Amir, Hasan spells and playing Fakhar's knocks. Some people really have poor understanding of cricket who think we won ct because of Sarfraz.
 
Leading from the front at the time of crises is something we can't associate with sarfraz. Missing Misbah's leadership today 58/4 and lower order batsmen was sent to stabilize the innings. :facepalm:
 
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1 good innings in CT17. Apart from that hasnt done anything. His captaincy didnt win pakistan the CT so why are we stuck with him still....
 
Can’t believe he came out to bat at no. 8 #facepalm
He even sent debutant Talat ahead of him when team is in pressure situation. What a pathetic display of cowardice captaincy.
 
such a coward to come in after 6 wickets gone... usually captain is the one who takes control of any situation...
 
How long can we let Sarfaraz being unaccountable for poor non improving captaincy?

Yet another game where he has let the opposition off the hook from a crunch situation where he gives away easy singles, puts on a non-regular bowler to a new batsman, doesn't have enough close in fielders for the new batsman.

He did this against WI in 2017, did it against NZ in 2018, did it against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in 2018, and has now done it against SA in 2019.

It is clear that this guy does not have the capacity to learn and improve from his mistakes. It just shows the poor standard and quality of our overall domestic cricket that this guy has been allowed to captain in domestic cricket for 10 years.

Imagine what Kane Williamson would do if he had the opposition 80/5 chasing 200. Kane Williamson's captaincy was the difference between the under dogs Kiwi's vs Pakistan in the UAE.

When will Pakistan have intelligent captains who can make the right decisions at the right time during the game without losing it under pressure?
 
He will be carried to the WC. If we fail he will be sacked, if we do well he'll be here till 2023

Called it months ago that he is a average player and not great tactically.
 
For sure he should've gone all out to take more wickets with his best bowlers the run rate was never going to be restricted.
 
Don't think we lost the game in the field.
Phehlukwayo chanced it and got lucky,
We didn't have enough runs but hit ourselves into a good place.
The team selection is all wrong though. Hafeez is now officially a 6th bowling option but we playing as if he can bowl full 10 and he can not anymore
 
He’s racist side came out today. Referred to Phelu as ‘arey kaaleh...
 
I don't think he deserves the honour of resignation. He needs to be sacked.
 
If South Africa lodge a formal complaint - he's finished by default.

Mickey Arthur better front up to as many press conferences until the storm either blows over or does its thing (to Sarfraz).
 
Sarfraz Ahmed's position as captain has become untenable and he needs to step down today!

The PCB and the team management need to have an emergency meeting to see what they can do to boost this side. You can't change the squad but I see no harm in changing the captain of the side.

They do not look a united bunch of players and nor they do look inspired to play under Sarfraz.

If it means Sarfraz has to call retirement, then so be it, he cannot lead the side for any longer.

He was finished a long time ago and we cannot allow this to continue. We have all waited patiently for 4 years since the last WC hoping we would see a Pakistan team become more competitive, but not only has the gulf between us and the top 5 widened, we are officially minnow bound!

As mentioned in my prediction earlier this week, I knew we would lose, but could any of us envisage such a crushing defeat against a team that sits outside the top 5?!

I just can't take any more.
 
The PCB and the team management need to have an emergency meeting to see what they can do to boost this side. You can't change the squad but I see no harm in changing the captain of the side.

They do not look a united bunch of players and nor they do look inspired to play under Sarfraz.

If it means Sarfraz has to call retirement, then so be it, he cannot lead the side for any longer.

He was finished a long time ago and we cannot allow this to continue. We have all waited patiently for 4 years since the last WC hoping we would see a Pakistan team become more competitive, but not only has the gulf between us and the top 5 widened, we are officially minnow bound!

As mentioned in my prediction earlier this week, I knew we would lose, but could any of us envisage such a crushing defeat against a team that sits outside the top 5?!

I just can't take any more.

Who do you suggest we make captain?

Malik? Hafeez? Amir? Wahab Riaz?
 
They will replace him with Malik if he steps down in the WC. Both are as bad as each other.
 
He should have been played in the Aus series and a decision taken then. Now it is too late and will put team in further disarray. Bad bad planning all round. Good thing is we have Rizwan in UK so backup keeper is available.


Don't even see a natural leader in the side. Perhaps Imad Wasim, but then he is a bits and pieces player himself and we will be back to this discussion in a few months.
 
Honestly, I've been supporting too much and now I'm realising that I've been supporting him unnecessarily. This WC is gone for us. Sarfaraz should just step down.
For me he's not an embarrassment but for the majority of pakistanis he is. So there's no reason why he needs to stay.
He's horrible in and out of the field.
 
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