Reports: Sarfaraz Ahmed turned down a graceful exit as captain of Pakistan
Sources close to the Pakistan Cricket Board have reported that Sarfaraz Ahmed was offered a graceful exit from the side. However, the wicket-keeper turned down the same.
According to PTI, when Sarfaraz met the CEO of PCB Wasim Khan on Friday (19th October 2019), the president asked him to resign as captain of the national side, but the Pakistani wicket-keeper flatly refused to do so.
“Sarfaraz flatly refused to do this and told Wasim the board could sack him if they wanted but he would not step down himself.”
Sources have also revealed that Sarfaraz will not be a part of the Test and T20I squads for the tour of Australia, as the new head coach-cum chief selector of the team, Misbah-ul-Haq, wishes to provide more opportunities to upcoming wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan.
The chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Ehsan Mani, acknowledged that they had to drop Sarfaraz because of his lack of confidence and unsatisfactory form. He said:
“The decision was a difficult one but taken in the best interest of Pakistan cricket.”
Sarfaraz Ahmed's record in international cricket
Sarfaraz has played 116 ODIs, 49 Tests and 58 T20Is for Pakistan so far. Talking about his record in the longest format of the game first, the right-handed batsman has scored 2,657 runs at an average of 36.40 in 86 innings. Also, he has scored 3 hundreds and 18 half-centuries.
In T20Is, he has scored 812 runs in 41 innings at a strike rate of 126.68 while in ODIs, Ahmed has 2,302 runs to his name with 2 centuries and 11 fifties. Behind the wickets, Sarfaraz has taken 297 catches and inflicted 55 stumpings for Pakistan.
Given that the team management wants to try new wicket-keepers in the international team, Sarfaraz may not play for Pakistan in the near future.
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