Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar has labeled Sarfaraz Ahmed as a ‘confused’ captain as he is still unable to find a permanent batting position for himself.
While analyzing the Pakistan team performance, Akhtar said that Sarfaraz needs to focus on his batting more than captaincy.
Sarfaraz as a captain is confused. I have been telling him for the past two years to bat higher up the order as Pakistan needs him more as a batsman than as a captain. If Sarfaraz score runs, it would be beneficial for him in the long run as he is facing pressure from other wicketkeepers like Mohammad Rizwan.
Sarfaraz has changed his batting position twice in the series against Sri Lanka; he batted at no. 5 in 2nd ODI whereas opted to come a bit earlier in the 3rd ODI and 1st T20I.
The decline in Sarfaraz’s form is because he has not bat for the past two years, and now he is trying to do so but is unable to score runs.
Akhtar further spoke in favor of Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik who have been dropped from Pakistan’s T20I squad as well.
Malik and Hafeez played a major role in taking Pakistan to the number one spot in ICC rankings, so it would have been better if they played in this series.
Furthermore, he claimed that it is unfair to judge Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal who are making a comeback in the team.
It is unfair to expect from Ahmed Shehzad and Umer Akmal that they would do wonders straight away, as the returning batsmen are already under pressure.
Akhtar’s vile comments about Misbah in 2015. Called him a buzdil and selfish kaptaan and then made comments about his English speaking. Called him the worse captain in the history of our cricket. So Shoaib bhai has a history of these extremely emotional and crude remarks
Shoaib him self is a part time bowler who never played a full series in his career because of his poor form, fitness and attitude. Critisizing captaincy alone is not the solution Sarfaraz can only play at 4 – 6 no. And keep wickets taking runs and wickets are the basic job of other 10 players who are appointed for this job in national team.