'We touched many milestones' - Wahab Riaz pays tribute to Sarfaraz Ahmed

Sarfaraz Ahmed has recently been sacked as the skipper of the Pakistan national team. He has been under the pump for a significant amount of time and in the end, the PCB ran out of patience with the keeper. Misbah-ul-Haq, the coach-cum-selector of the team was reportedly not happy with Sarfaraz and had a discussion with PCB chief executive Wasim Khan surrounding the same.

Misbah was agitated by Sarfaraz’s approach of shying away from responsibilities in the hour of need. He was also not pleased with a few of the senior cricketers for not attending the practice sessions with dedication. Sarfaraz hasn’t had the best of years. He led the national team in the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales, but the side couldn’t progress beyond the league stages.

The PCB still persisted with him for the home series versus Sri Lanka. However, after winning the ODI series 2-0, Pakistan lost the T20I series 3-0. The result came as a bit of surprise as the Men in Green are the ICC’s number-one ranked team in the shortest format. It was clear that Sarfaraz was under pressure. The 32-year-old even had to face abuses from fans during the World Cup.

Sarfaraz dropped from Australia series

To add insult to injury, he hasn’t been included in the team as well for the T20I and Test series versus Australia, scheduled to get underway in November. Azhar Ali and Babar Azam have been appointed as the Test and T20I skipper respectively. Back in 2017, Pakistan, under the leadership of Sarfaraz, won the Champions Trophy, beating India in the final at the Kennington Oval.

For the time being, it remains to be seen what lies ahead of Sarfaraz for the future. In the meantime, Wahab Riaz, the Pakistan fast bowler, got emotional after the keeper’s axing. The speedster, who took an indefinite break from red-ball cricket recently, paid tribute to Sarfaraz and said that his services to Pakistan cricket will always shine bright.

The left-arm pacer took to Twitter and wrote, “Your services to Pakistan cricket will always shine on @SarfarazA_54 We touched many milestones & entered a new era with pride,”

Here is Wahab Riaz’s tweet

Your services to Pakistan cricket will always shine on @SarfarazA_54 🙌🏼
We touched many milestones & entered a new era with pride. 👏🏼 👏🏼

— Wahab Riaz (@WahabViki) October 20, 2019

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