ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was all set to handover One Day and Test Cricket leadership to young Sarfraz Ahmed and Azhar Ali in a pretext of team’s failure against Australia, an official source confirmed on Wednesday.
Azhar Ali would replace Misbah-ul-Haq as a Test captain while Sarfraz Ahmed would take over as a one day leader, the source said adding it had been decided in principle and would be announced before West Indian series.
Azhar’s performance as a one day captain against Australia forced management to shift responsibility to Sarfraz, known as a tough competitor in all sort of the game.
This was a strange move by the PCB as every time a player not even included in a squad returned in the team as a leader, so was the case with Azhar. Azhar Ali remained out of the team for more than a year.
The source said that the PCB was not satisfied at all with Azhar Ali’s One Day International (ODI) captaincy and change was imperative for national cricket.
Sarfraz known as “Dhoka nahi de ga” had proved his worth and selection in the past successfully and public opinion also forced the PCB to handover him top slot.
“The board would farewell Misbah with honour and dignity as he has led Pakistan extremely well. The decision of retirement, however, lies with him (Misbah),” the source said.
The source said that Misbah was already 42 and the board had to think about test team’s future.
Pakistan was scheduled to play a series against West Indies after the conclusion of Pakistan Super League (PSL) in March 2017.
The Pakistan-West Indies series would include three Tests, three ODIs and two Twenty20s.
Source: APP/DND
