World Cup 2019: Shoaib Akhtar asks Sarfaraz Ahmed to bring home the glory

The precursor to the ICC World Cup 2019 will begin from May 24 as all of the 10 participating teams will engage in two warm-up matches till May 28. One of the teams expected to do well in this edition of ICC event, Pakistan will open their warmup account against Afghanistan and everyone will want to see what experiments Sarfaraz Ahmed and team management pull off during the encounters.

The Men in Green have been at the receiving end lately, especially after being whitewashed 5-0 at the hands of Australia in UAE and then England crushed them 0-4 at home, in what was considered to be a preview for Pakistan before the World Cup began. This also led them to make three changes in their preliminary squad and filling in the gaps left the first time.

As the excitement is building towards the start of the tournament and fans will get to watch their stars in the warmup matches before the actual tournament begins, former Pakistani bowler, Shoaib Akhtar took to Twitter in order to wish captain Sarfaraz Ahmed as he leads the Green Army into the tournament for the first time.

This is your moment, seal it, says Akhtar to Sarfaraz

Sarfaraz Ahmed returns to the place when he got the glory as they won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017 beat India in the final in an emphatic performance. Since then, nothing has worked well for the team and the captain has been under scrutiny for the below-par performances in multi-team tournaments, like the Asia Cup 2018. There Pakistan lost to India two times in humiliating fashion and failed to make it into the finals as well.

However, the changes made to the World Cup squad points towards positive transformation as experienced Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir return to lend help the young guns like Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Hasnain. Asif Ali, who recently lost his daughter to cancer, will plug in the huge gap of a big hitter lower down the order that the team desperately seeks.

Given such reinforcements, it was very wise of Akhtar, who played a big role in Pakistan reaching the finals of the World Cup 1999, which was played in England, to encourage the current leader of the team with some words of wisdom.

He tweeted, “Looking forward to an exciting World Cup. I hope 50-Over Cricket will be at its best. @SarfarazA_54, this is your moment, seal it. Bring home the glory. #CricketWorldCup2019 #CWC19 #Pakistan”

Pakistan open their World Cup 2019 campaign against West Indies on May 31, but will first face Afghanistan in a warm-up match on May 24.

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