Am from Karachi too, but I'm Pakistani first.
Sarfraz is an insult to our rich batsmanship heritage consisting of batting heavyweights like Miandad, Anwar and now Asad Shafiq.
Ohh you're from Karachi, how convenient
[MENTION=136729]Suleiman[/MENTION] rehnay day bahi bandh kar apni yeah trolling FGS. Sarfaraz I understand is not up to scratch in LOIs but the problem is that we are playing him at absolutely the wrong position to begin with. He's not a #8 batsman and the shuffling he suffers to accommodate tailunts like Maqsood has ruined whatever game plan he might have as an LOI batsman.
I am not saying he's a world beater but to say that he's an insult to batsmans like Anwar and Faisal Iqbal
is quite honestly taking it too far. This was the same guy that led the charge against SA in the WC when all our so called Akmals, Shehzads, Hafeezs and Harris were getting their behinds handed to them.and we were on the brink on getting knocked out in the group stages. In addition, to this wonderful contribution he was the only guy in the squad to have scored a century; albeit that century came against Ireland but nonetheless you can only play against the teams you face right ??
I still remember even before he was given a chance in the WC, ex-legends (Wasim Akram) and cricket pundits were writing him off just because they thought he didn't have the technique to survive in Australia - Guess what he made a match defining 48 against SA pacers the first game he was give a chance, and followed it up with a very useful ton against Ireland. Sarfraz has one thing which the Akmals in their entire lifetime will never have, he has grit to battle it out when the chips are down and just like his career has been; marred with preference bias in favor of Akmals I sincerely believe that if we play him at the correct position which is #3 or as an opener he would do quite well and would be a breath of fresh air for this dull and uncoordinated batting line up.
If I was in the coaching staff / management I would personally have the below 1,2 & 3 in my lineup.
1. Umar Akmal
2. Sarfaraz
3. Hafeez
In the above three you have a guy who plays pace best when it comes to the Pakistan batting line-up i.e. Umar Akmal. Then you have Sarfraz who plays spin the best which makes him a very useful T-20 opener as a lot of the teams start the bowling with spinners in this format. Then at #3 you have Hafeez who has is a very decent bat at one down position, probably his best batting position as well.
This lineup especially in T20s can make an extremely strong batting engine. It gives our best T20 bat UA the perfect opportunity to play as many overs as possible and also protects Hafeez from the new ball conundrum which has been the Achilles heel for his entire batting career. 7/10 I would back these three in particular to get the job done on most surfaces which practically is good enough for a team like Pakistan who's top three usually muck it up 9 times out of 10 and lets be sincerely honest here; Sarafraz won't do half as bad in the top three than what Shehzad and Maqsood have been dishing out for the past couple of years.
This might also help UA to achieve what we need of him to become for the Pakistan LOI side. Sarfaraz is quite the wily customer when it comes to calculating run rates and playing the field - In short he has a very sane head on his shoulders and further has captaincy experience at the junior level, so he can manage players as well. He could be the ideal foil to our batting crown prince and I would be inclined to pair them just so that he can transfer some of his brains to UA in a real time match environment. For all the talent UA posses he basically lacks the one thing that is most necessary - the brain. Sarfraz can be that leveler which could mature UA as a batsman and coherently make Pakistan a very dynamic batting unit altogether.
People very quickly forget how good he's been in tests, the most demanding cricket format, he was practically the reason why we managed that historic Sharjah chase. He added a very unique and modern dimension to our old fashioned test batting lineup and ever since his induction Pakistan have been quite prominent in having a sound top 7.
Disregarding his batting and on keeping standards alone he outperforms all his contemporaries i.e. Kamran, Rizwan & Umar which is practically the only reason that could be sufficient enough to hold his place. People very conveniently forget how miserable we were as a nation when in every game there was a drop catch happening and everyone was calling for Akmal's head. In case you've forgotten please have a look at this thread which was opened way back in 2011 right here on our precious PP website -
Link
K.Akmal had a grand total of
84 muck ups in a span of
4 years i.e. from 2007-2011. I am not even giving you current numbers of 2016 after which the tally could be somewhere close to 110-120 if I am not mistaken
you want a guy who has 100+ drops in his entire cricketing career ??
to play for Pakistan. I can bet a lot of money on the mere fact that if we accumulate all the drops from all keepers that played for Pakistan and yes that includes Umer and Adnan as well we would not be at even 50% of the drops that are inflicted by Mr. K.Akmal alone - That's how bad he is as a keeper.
In all fairness I would quote an English commie, i cant remember his name (can someone please correct me on this) but I remember the saying which went something like
'Even if K.Akmal had the average of Don Bradman in International Cricket, it would still not make up for the drops he incurs during a game' - That's how important keeping skills are for a team. Rationally speaking if Kamran cannot make it as a keeper he has no business in being in the XI for Pakistan because as a fielder he would be on par with either Irfan or Rahat and would give more runs than what his worth is with the bat.
As far as tests go there is not even a hint of competition between the two, Sarfraz in his last 19 test innings have been dismissed for a score of less than 50 only FOUR FREAKING TIMES. That's how good a batsman he is, so logically speaking I would be more inclined to give someone a chance who has proved his mettle at the highest level in comparison to someone who might just be a have been and quite honestly, even in his prime playing days K.Akmal was no world beater - He was just another decent bat; that's about it.
Past laurels for individual players means jack and we should look to move forward. It is an established fact that Sarfraz is the best player of spin bowling in the team at the moment. With the WC in India I would back him to perform against any attack currently. The circumstance do not allow us to bring K.Akmal as he will always be a stop gap in our batting hurdles. For once, we need to look long term and make decisions that benefit Pakistan for an extended period of time.
