Reports: Sarfaraz Ahmed opted not to step down as captain with grace

The Pakistan Cricket Board took a huge step in removing Sarfaraz Ahmed from the captaincy of the Pakistani team in Test and T20I format. This was coming for a long time, given that the team’s performance under him had been unsatisfactory for a long time. Sarfaraz had become a captain in 2016 taking over from Misbah and led the team to Champions Trophy 2017 triumph.

Sarfaraz had also led the Men in Green to no.1 ranking in T20I format, but he continued to fail as a batsman and his fitness also became an issue. However, the last straw was his failure to take the Pakistani team into the knockout stages of the ICC World Cup 2019. He was also slammed for choosing to bowl first after winning the toss against India in their clash in the mega ICC event, which Pakistan lost in a bad way.

Sarfaraz Ahmed refused to step down from captaincy, says sources

It seems that Sarfaraz, who has not been chosen in the Pakistani team for the upcoming Australia tour, didn’t want to let the prestigious post of captain go that easily. Sarfaraz has been asked by the board and team management to go back into the domestic cricket and score runs in order to gain his confidence and his place into the team.

However, if sources are to be believed, Sarfaraz was given a chance to gracefully step down as the captain of the team across all the three formats, during a meeting with PCB CEO Wasim Khan. However, things didn’t go down as plan, as he refused the offer and asked the board to sack him. “Sarfaraz flatly refused to do this and told Wasim the Board could sack him if they wanted but he would not step down himself,” the PCB source was quoted as saying by First Post.

This has probably resulted in him being removed from the team as well, though the source indicated that head coach-chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq is now focussed on giving Muhammad Rizwan more chances in the team behind the stumps with an eye on the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia. PCB chief Ehsan Mani admitted it was a difficult decision to remove Sarfaraz as captain, but the decision was the best one in the interest of the team’s cricket.

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