PCB will decide my captaincy future: Sarfaraz Ahmed

As he stepped into the National Stadium in Karachi to attend a press conference, it seemed as if the journalists were waiting like a pride of lions to try and hunt Sarfaraz Ahmed down. The Pakistan skipper, though, was patient enough and answered all their questions in a session that lasted over half-an-hour. There were several questions that were shot at him right from the team’s performance in England to his relation with coach Mickey Arthur.

There were questions raised if Inzamam-ul-Haq tried to influence team selection. Some of the journos even asked him about the farewell game for Shoaib Malik while a few others were bold enough to ask Sarfaraz why he’d send out players like Wahab Riaz and Hasan Ali to bat ahead of him. However, the most striking and anticipated of all was about the future of his captaincy.

Don’t need to apologise; proud of the performance

There have been several talks if Sarfaraz Ahmed needed to step down taking responsibility for the exit. For quite a while now, there have been questions about his Test captaincy. However, Sarfaraz Ahmed seemed to be in no mood to take any evasive action. He seemed to be proud of his team’s performance. The wicket-keeper batsmen applauded his boys for bouncing back hard after the first few games.

As far as the captaincy questions were concerned, Sarfaraz Ahmed mostly tried to duck them. Nearly three or four journalists tried to get an answer from him in different ways. But he doesn’t seem to be interested in voluntarily stepping down. Sarfaraz Ahmed said that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) decided to make him the captain. So, he left it to the cricket board to decide upon his future as the captain of the team. He even said that he didn’t have to say ‘sorry’ to the team’s performance and felt that they were good enough if not for the NRR.

However, he accepted that he blew hot and cold in the tournament. The 32-year-old said that he was content with his performance and even hoped to continue for the next World Cup. When questioned about the T20 World Cup next year, Sarfaraz Ahmed said that he’d make some changes to fine tune things if he was given an extended run as the captain of the side.