Quetta Gladiators Franchise Owner Nadeem Omer has announced on Monday that Sarfraz Ahmed will no longer captain the side leading up to the new season of the Pakistan Super League.
Sarfraz Ahmed has led the Gladiators as skipper in the last eight seasons and he made them champions under his leadership in 2019 also reaching the final of the competition three times.
The 2017 Champions Trophy winner has been going through a bad patch in terms of captaincy with the Quetta Gladiators and his side has finished at the bottom of the Pakistan Super League table for the last three seasons.
The wicketkeeper-batter is the only Pakistani captain in the last decade who has won Pakistan the coveted ICC trophy and has set the PSL alight with his strike-rotating prowess and immaculate stroke play.
🚨 Sarfaraz Ahmed will no longer captain Quetta Gladiators, according to franchise owner Nadeem Omar.
Source: Geo Super#HBLPSL9 | #PSL2024 pic.twitter.com/2zpOWr0cJQ
— Grassroots Cricket (@grassrootscric) February 12, 2024
In 68 PSL innings Sarfraz has accumulated 1503 runs and has scored 7 fifties with an average of 31.31, but his last three seasons have turned out to be below par with the bat.
It seems that the skipper has lost confidence of the dressing room and the franchise and now the owners are trying to look for a fresh face who can lead the side with new ideas.
In January 2023, he scored a fighting century in his comeback series against New Zealand in the second Test where he scored a 100 in 139 balls with a six and nine boundaries. He is the only wicketkeeper-batter who has scored 3,000 runs in Test cricket for Pakistan.
Pakistan won 11 T20I series in a row under his captaincy and became the number 1 team in the world in the shortest format of the game. However, in the last three editions of PSL, his franchise has failed to even reach the play-offs.
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Good news!