ABU DHABI: Pakistan’s Twenty20 captain Sarfraz Ahmed believes the clean sweep over the world champions West Indies is the first step towards building a formidable outfit for the future.

Pakistan blanked West Indies 3-0 in the Twenty20 International series with another dominating performance as they won the third and final match in Abu Dhabi by eight wickets on Tuesday night.

They had won the first two matches by nine wickets and 16 runs in Dubai.

Sarfraz said the win will go a long way towards establishing a Twenty20 team, struggling after being ousted in the first round of the World Twenty20 held in India in March-April this year.

That forced the then skipper Shahid Afridi to step down and Sarfraz was handed over the leadership, who won all four matches — also beating England at Old Trafford in Manchester earlier this month — thus far.

“Of course, this is the first step towards building a new team,” said Sarfraz. “If we want to become a good team then we have to bring consistency. Both junior and senior players are performing and contributing and that is the sign of a good team.”

Left-arm spinning all-rounder Imad Wasim, declared man of the series for his nine wickets in the series, rocked the West Indies’ top order with figures of 3-21.

West Indies below par total of 103-5 was never a bother for Pakistan, who chased down the target in 15.1 overs for the loss of two wickets.

All did not go well for the West Indies after winning the World Twenty20 title.

World Twenty20 winning captain Darren Sammy was replaced by Carlos Brathwaite while successful coach Phil Simmons was sacked.

Sarfraz admitted a 3-0 win wasn’t expected before the series.

“We didn’t estimate we would win 3-0,” said Sarfraz. “But I will give full credit to the boys for doing everything better than them and that’s why we have won the series.”

Sarfraz said he was enjoying the captaincy.

“It’s nice to see senior and juniors cooperating and contributing. It’s a combination of juniors and seniors and I am enjoying it as a leader,” the 29-year-old wicket-keeper/batsman remarked.

Pakistan and West Indies will now play three One-day Internationals with the first game in Sharjah on Friday with Azhar Ali taking over the reins for the green shirts.

The one-dayers will be followed by three Tests, the first of which is a day-night game in Dubai from Oct 13.

Published in Dawn September 29th, 2016

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