LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday elevated wicket-keeper/batsman and T20 vice-captain Sarfraz Ahmed as national T20 skipper in place of Shahid Afridi who stepped down after his team’s humiliating exit from the recently-concluded World T20 in India.

Sarfraz, 28, played in all the four World T20 matches but batted lower down the order throughout the tournament despite having a good strike rate of 120.24 in 21 T20 Internationals.

He led Quetta Gladiators in the country’s first professional domestic Twenty20 league, the Pakistan Super League (PSL), in February before losing to the Misbah-ul-Haq-led Islamabad United in the final.

The new T20 skipper made his international debut in 2007, a year after he led Pakistan to win the U-19 World Cup. Sarfraz so far has scored 1,077 runs in 58 ODIs and 1,296 runs in 21 Tests at an impressive average of 46.28. It was only last year that he was made vice-captain for both T20 and ODI teams.

“The PCB is pleased to announce appointment of Sarfraz Ahmed as captain of Pakistan T20 team. Sarfraz was appointed vice-captain of ODI and T20 teams last year. He takes over the captaincy of the shortest form of the game from Shahid Afridi whose term as captain came to an end after the ICC World T20 2016.”

The PCB chairman further said in the statement: “I spoke to Sarfraz this morning and conveyed to him that he was our natural choice for this position. His appointment is open-ended. I wish him good luck in his new role.”

Though opener Ahmed Shehzad was PCB’s choice for the post of captaincy last year while all-rounder Shoaib Malik was frontrunner for said post before the Asia Cup T20, both lost the opportunity for different reasons.

While Shoaib disappointed the Board with his performances in the Asia Cup World T20 as well as World T20 apart from having been involved in dubious affairs in the past, Shehzad’s attitude and indiscipline issues became main stumbling block in his way of becoming the T20 skipper.

On the other hand, ex-captain Mohammad Hafeez was also a possible choice before the PCB for leading the national T20 side. However, his rejection doesn’t came as a surprise particularly in the wake of his involvement in hiding his injury ahead of the Asia Cup World T20 due to which he was dropped from two important World T20 matches against Australia and New Zealand.

Sarfraz has become Pakistan’s seventh captain in the shortest format of the game with Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad Hafeez holding the post before him.

Misbah, despite having an impressive record as captain in the T20 format, was removed by then PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf who wanted to see Hafeez as captain. However, Hafeez failed to deliver in the 2014 World T20 which led to his replacement with Shahid Afridi.

After appointing the T20 captain, the PCB now has to appoint a new selection committee and coaching staff with keen-eyed observers speculating that the PCB might opt for a foreigner as head coach to replace Waqar Younis while other coaches will be appointed in consultation with the new head coach.

For the purpose, Wasim Akram and Ramiz Raja have been asked to look for a foreign head coach during the next edition of the IPL.

However, former Test bowler Aaqib Javed is also in the run for the same post with former Test leg-spinner Iqbal Qasim being the only possible choice as chief selector particularly after Mohsin Khan expressed his interests in becoming head coach instead of chief selector, a post the former opener has been offered by the PCB, according to sources.

Agencies add: Former Test captain Rashid Latif doesn’t think that’s enough to properly assess Sarfraz’ ability as captain. “The decision to appoint Sarfraz is no more than damage control of PCB,” Rashid said.

“The cricket board is trying to put behind what happened at the World Twenty20 where we could win only one group match against Bangladesh,” maintained the former wicket-keeper.

He further said that the PCB should also replace ODI captain Azhar Ali and “bring in Sarfraz” so that the wicketkeeper-batsman could get more experience as a skipper in the international arena.

“Making him captain for only Twenty20 is not enough,” Rashid remarked.

On the other hand, veteran all-rounder Shahid Afridi on Tuesday appreciated PCB’s decision to appoint confident Sarfraz as T20 captain.

The former T20 captain lauded Sarfraz, stating that the wicket-keeper was a passionate and energetic player.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2016