Last week, we said that something would have to give as far as Sarfaraz Ahmed’s future with the Pakistan team is concerned, given his complete lack of form with the bat for over a couple of years now. And it was last Friday that Sarfaraz was removed as the skipper of the national side in all formats.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first – something we’ve highlighted in this space for the past three seasons. Pakistan owes a lot to Sarfaraz Ahmed in the T20I format, given that his captaincy was a major factor in taking Pakistan to the summit of the 20-over game.
Sarfaraz’s removal from the Test and even ODI captaincy was a no-brainer, given the national team’s precipitous slide in those formats. But Sarfaraz’s fate was sealed in the format where he has excelled as a skipper.
In the 3-0 defeat against Sri Lanka, Sarfaraz couldn’t hide behind the firing top order which had often taken Pakistan home in T20Is. In all three matches that Pakistan lost, Sarfaraz came in during the thick of things in the run chase, and comprehensively failed to deliver the goods with the bat. In the final ODI, he was instrumental in actually surrendering the match from a comfortable winning position.
Babar Azam
What the Sri Lanka series reaffirmed is that Sarfaraz has been completely out of sorts with the bat for a while. And with the 3-0 result coming under his watch, all the wrong pieces fell into place for Sarfaraz.
As we’ve underlined in this space, these are supercharged times for Pakistan cricket. Every move is being scrutinized more than anything we’ve seen in recent times, and that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.
Hence, Misbah-ul-Haq should now be prepared to take complete ownership of the national side. He’s the coach and the chief selector, and now has designated his own captains in the Test and ODI sides. Everything is on Misbah, henceforth.
And here is what we have:
T20I squad: Babar Azam (c), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Imamul Haq, Shadab Khan, Moosa Khan, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Rizwan, Wahab Riaz, Khushdil Shah, and Usman Qadir.
Test squad: Azhar Ali (c), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Imamul Haq, Imran Khan senior, Iftikhar Ahmed, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan, Moosa Khan, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood and Yasir Shah.
Azhar Ali
Babar Azam has been given the captaincy for the same reason that Sarfaraz hadn’t been dropped earlier: there is no one else to lead the side in the limited-overs sides. There was a case for Imad Wasim who has been a relatively consistent performance, but he doesn’t have a guaranteed position in the ODI side.
Misbah could’ve gone for three different captains in three different formats, but he isn’t quite a fan of Imad’s fitness, and in turn his work ethic. Again, with these decisions Misbah is only enhancing his own control over the side, which will be gauged through the success of the national side, or lack thereof.
Similarly, Azhar Ali, too, is in Misbah’s good books, and was named as his ODI successor after the 2015 World Cup. However, Azhar’s ODI captaincy didn’t leave much to write home about.
Even so, Azhar Ali is an established, world-class Test batsman and that could prove to be the difference in his captaincy tenures. However, he hasn’t quite been able to replicate his Test form from the MisYou years and will now have the added burden of leadership to deliver the goods.
The T20I and Test squads for the upcoming Australia tour have a few intriguing calls, which we’ll discuss next week. For now, it’s the formal unveiling of the post-Sarfaraz era, which needs to be significantly more successful than its predecessor, to keep the critics at bay.
